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THE    CAPTAINS 


EOMAI    REPUBLIC 


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C  AP  T  AIN S 

OP    THE  \S     0      0      C         ^ 

EOMAN    EEPUBLIC, 


AS    COMPARED  WITH 


THE  GKEAT  MODEKN  STEATEGISTS; 


CAMPAIGNS,   CHARACTER,   AND  CONDUCT  FROM  THE 
PUNIC  WARS  TO  THE  DEATH  OF  C^SAR. 


BY 

HENRY  WILLAM  HERBERT. 


NEW  YORK: 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER,    145    NASSAU    STREET. 

1S54. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1854,  by 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern 

District  of  New  York. 


STEREOryPED  BY 


^       R.    CRAIGHEAD,    PBINTBB. 

C.    W.    BENEDICT, 

'  03    VE8ET    STREKT,    N. 

No  10  Spruce  St. 


//f 


TO 

C.  €.  itWm, 

REGENT  OF  HARVARD  UNIVERSITY, 
&C.,    &C.,    &C., 

IN    MEMO  RY 

OF   MANY    PLEASANT   HOURS    HERETOFORE    SPENT    TOGETHER, 

AND    HOPE    OF    MORE    SUCH    HEREAFTER, 

NOR   LESS    IN    TOKEN 

OF    CORDIAL    REGARD    FOR   HIMSELF, 

AND    SINCERE    RESPECT     FOR     HIS     TALENTS     AND     ATl^AlNMENTS, 

THIS     VOLUME 

IS    DEDICATED,    BY    HIS    FRIEND, 

THE  AUTHOR. 


iS572300 


PREFACE. 


My  Dear  Feltoit; 

ISTeakly  two  years  have  elapsed  since  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  dedicating  to  you  my  "  Captains  of  the 
Old  World,"  and  as  you  will,  I  know,  be  gratified 
to  hear,  I  feel  myself  justified,  by  the  cordial  kind- 
ness with  which  that  work  was  received,  in  proceeding 
to  ofifer  to  the  public  its  next  successor,  "The  Cap- 
tains of  tlie  Koman  Eej)ublic." 

I  believe,  I  stated  in  my  former  preface  with 
sufficient  clearness,  to  render  many  words  on  this 
occasion  unnecessary,  what  are  my  views,  and  what 
the  principle  on  which  I  propose  to  act  in  this  system 
of  works. 

I  use  the  word  system,  you  will  observe,  because 
I  choose  to  avoid  the  word,  series;  and  for  this 
reason — that  I  notice,  and  do  not  wonder  at,  a 
daily  growing  disinclination  on  the  part  of  the  reading 
public  to  engage  in  the  purchase,  or  even  the  perusal 
of   works   ostensibly  serial;    from   the    verj  natural 


PREFACE. 


and  reasonable  apprehension  that  the  series  will 
never  be  concluded  at  all;  or,  if  at  all,  not  within 
the  lifetime  of  the  present  generation — as  seems  likely 
to  be  the  case  with  M.  Thiees'  brilliant  history  of 
the  Consulate  and  Empire;  or,  Mr.  Macaulay's  no 
less  brilliant  history  of  England. 

It  is  for  this  reason,  then,  that  I  have  eschewed 
not  to  call^  but  to  make  my  work  serial.  In  as  much 
as  I  propose  that  each  volume  shall  contain  the 
military  history  of  the  truly  great  Captains  of  one 
distinct  period,  in  itself  complete,  disconnected  from 
any  preceding  work,  and  perfectly  intelligible  in 
itself,  without  reference  to  that  which  has  gone  before, 
or  which  shall  follow  it. 

In  one  sense,  serial  these  volumes  unquestionably 
are  and  will  be;  that  they  are  intended  to  follow 
one  another,  and  in  some  sort  to  grow  out  of  one 
another,  naturally,  in  the  course  of  time,  and  in  the 
current  of  events ;  so  that,  of  course,  he  who  has  read 
one  will  better  understand  the  gist  of  arguments, 
and  the  narrative  of  events  contained  in  the  next 
succeeding  it,  than  he  who  is  wholly  inexpert  in 
my  method  of  dealing  with  antique  strategy  and 
tactics. 

Beyond  this,  each  volume  has  its  own  interest, 
self-contained,  and  undivided;  and  possesses  its 
own  subject  in  itself  unmingled  and  complete. 

To  what  length  this  system  of  volumes  may  be 
carried  is,  as  on  its  face  must  needs  appear,  uncertain 


PREFACE.  li 

in  the   highest ;    for   to    insure   its   continuation,  the 

continuation  of  all  things  else,  and   those  the  least 

insurable,  as  life,  health,  leisure,  means,  ability,  and, 

last  in  place  though  first  in  importance,  popular  favor 

must  be  insured  likewise.     Suffice  it  to  say,  that  it 

is  my  plan,  other  things  granted,  to  persevere  in  my 

undertaking  until  I  have  reached  the  period  within 

which    men    may   write    partizan    declamation,   but 

cannot  write  history  ;  and  that  w^ere  I  permitted  to 

announce   a   termination   so   remote  to  my  labors,  I 

would  announce  the  close  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 

as   the   most  recent   date   of  which   I   w^ould  in  any 

event  desire  to  treat.     For,  in  the  first  place,  I  do 

not  believe  that  all  the  documents  and  archives,  which 

are  hereafter  to  throw  light  on  the  true  history  of 

subsequent  events,  are  as  yet  attainable ;  and,  in  the 

second,  I  am  of  opinion  that  personal,  that  patriotical, 

that   political   prejudices   are   not   fully   extinguished 

in  families,  or  individuals,  within  a  century  at  least; 

and  that  no  man,  while  influenced  by  prejudices  of 

party  or  even  national  friendship  or  hatred,  can  so 

write  history  as  to  leave  it  worth  the  reading. 

In  order  to  descend,  however,  to  the  subject  of  my 

present  volume,  I  would  remind  you  of  a  principle 

which  I  laid  down  to  myself  in  my  last,  and  to  which 

I   ought   perhaps   to  refer,   as   explaining  the   cause 

of  my  passing  over  so  many  years  of  the  Republic 

in  total  silence,  before  treatino*  of  a  single  captain. 

In  the  preface  to  that  volume    I  used  these  words, 
1* 


i  PREFACE. 

"  I  have  not,  of  course,  dreamed  of  inclnding  in  my 
list  of  captains,  all  the  men  who  set  battalions  in 
the  field,  and  fought  gallantly,  whether  for  patriotism 
or  ambition ;  but  have  selected  those  only  who  were, 
in  my  opinion,  really  eminent,  really  worthy  of  con" 
tinned  remembrance,  really  entitled  to  be  enrolled 
in  the  annals  of  all  time  as  great  Generals,"  and  by 
these  words  I  propose  to  myself  still  to  be  governed. 
It  is  for  this  reason,  therefore,  that,  while  treating 
especially  of  "  The  Captains  of  the  Roman  Republic," 
I  have  entirely  omitted  the  continually  warlike,  and 
almost  continually  victorious,  magistrates  of  that 
republic,  during  the  first  three  centuries  of  its  exist- 
ence ;  and  that  I  commence  only  with .  Publius  Cor- 
nelius Scipio,  subsequently  surnamed  Africanus,  in 
the  54:5th  year  from  the  foundation  of  the  city  of 
Rome,  the  301st  of  the  Republic,  and  the  208th 
before  the  Christian  era;  being  in  fact  little  more 
than  a  century  and  a  half  23revious  to  the  extinction 
of  the  Commonwealth,  and  the  erection  of  the  long 
dynasty  of  Csesai-s  on  its  ruins.  For  this  reason, 
I  mean — that  I  do  not  intend  to  deal  with  successful 
soldiers,  who  conquered  by  brute  valor,  or  by  the 
inborn  superiority  of  the  men  they  led ;  and  that 
before  Scipio,  the  conqueror  of  Hannibal,  there  was 
no  Roman,  who  at  all  merited  the  style  of  a  great 
captain. 

This  will   doubtless  astonish  many  of  my  readers, 
who  have  been   wont  to  believe  as  implicitly  in  the 


fabulous  exploits  of  the  Cainilli,  the  Curii,  and  the 
Decii,  as  in  the  authentic  campaigns  of  Julius  Caesar; 
and  who  have  been  taught  that  the  subjugation  of  all 
northern  and  middle  Italy  to  the  arms  of  Kome, 
a  little  prior  to  the  date  at  which  I  commence,  was 
due  to  the  individual  science  and  prowess  of  her 
generals,  and  not  to  the  extraordinary  constitution 
and  peculiar  organization  of  her  people. 

In  this  rcspect,  it  is  admirably  remarked  by  the 
lamented  Arnold  in  the  exordium  to  his  53d  chapter 
on  the  second  Punic  war,  that,  "  If  Hannibal's  genius 
may  be  likened  to  some  Homeric  God,  who  in  his 
hatred  of  the  Trojans  rises  from  the  deep  to  rally 
the  fainting  Greeks  and  to  lead  them  against  the 
enemy;  so  the  calm  courage  with  which  Hector  met 
his  more  than  human  adversary,  is  no  unworthy  image 
of  the  unyielding  magnanimity  displayed  by  the 
aristocracy  of  Eome.  As  Hannibal  utterly  eclipses 
Carthage,  so  on  the  contrary  Fabius,  Marcellus, 
Claudius  Nero,  nay  Scipio  himself,  are  as  nothing 
when  compared  to  the  spirit  and  wisdom  and  power 
of  Home.  The  senate  which  voted  its  thanks  to  its 
political  enemy  Varro,  after  his  disastrous  defeat, 
'  because  he  had  not  despaired  of  the  Commonwealth,' 
and  which  disdained  to  solicit,  or  to  reprove,  or  to 
threaten,  or  in  any  way  to  notice  the  twelve  colonies, 
which  had  refused  their  accustomed  supplies  of  men 
to  the  army,  is  far  more  to  be  honored  than  the 
conqueror  of  Zama." 


XU  PREFACE. 

And  if  this  be  true — as  true  it  is  to  the  letter — 
of  the  great  Scipio,  of  whom  Niebuhr  said  in  the 
preface  to  his  third  vohime  that  he  "towers  as  far 
above  his  nation,  as  Hannibal  above  all  nations^" 
so  much  the  more  correct  is  it  of  all  those  who  pre- 
ceeded  him,  and  who,  w^hether  they  conquered  or 
fell,  alike  in  their  duty  to  their  country,  fought  and 
fell,  lived  and  died,  by  the  genius  of  Eome,  and  by  no 
peculiar  virtue  or  inspiration  of  their  own. 

I  do  not  precisely  mean  to  say  that  no  Koman  prior 
to  Scipio,  known  as  Africanus,  displayed  any  high 
soldierly  qualities,  or  merited  any  praise  either  for 
strategy  or  tactics ;  since  sevei-al  had  done  so  during 
that  very  second  Punic  war,  which  he  w^as  born  to 
terminate, — especially  his- own  father,  Publius  Scipio, 
whose  persistency  in  sending  his  army  into  Spain 
after  Hannibal  had  already  passed  the  Alps,  was,  it 
may  well  be,  ultimately  the  cause  of  Home's  salvation; 
and,  secondly,  Claudius  IsTero,  whose  forced  march 
from  Venosa  in  La,  Puglia,  to  the  banks,  of  the  Metro 
in  the  marches  of  Ancona,  and  defeat  of  Hasdrubal, 
is  the  solitary  specimen  of  true  generalship  on  the 
part  of  the  Romans  during  HannibaPs  seventeen 
campaigns  in  Italy.  But  I  do  assert  that  prior  to  the 
conqueror  at  Zama,  no  single  man  displayed  such 
qualities,  in  so  high  a  degree,  or  in  instances  so  nume- 
rous, as  to  justify  us  in  attributing  to  him  the  praise 
of  decided  military  genius. 

In   my   last   volume,    "  the    Captains    of    the    Old 


PREFACE. 


World,"  you  will  remember  that  I  included  Hannibal, 
whom  I  regard,  and  whom  a  far  better  judge  than  I, 
JSTapoleon  the  Great,  regarded  as  the  General  un- 
equalled of  all  ages,  and  this  I  did,  rather  perhaps  for 
the  sake  of  uniformity,  than  in  order  consistently  to 
close  an  epoch. 

The  pages  of  this,  work  will  relate  exclusively  to 
Komans,  unless  in  so  far  as  the  generals  opposed  to 
them  aj'e  incidentally  concerned  ;  and  will  contain 
accounts  of  the  campaigns  of  all  those,  whom  I  hold 
worthy  to  be  deemed  captains,  from  the  time  of 
Scipio  to  that  of  Marc  Antony. 

Nor,  if  I  have  heretofore  dealt  with  some  of  the 
greatest  and  most  splendid  heroes  and  leaders  of 
antiquity,  such  as  Miltiades,  Xenophon,  Epaminondas,' 
Alexander,  Hannibal,  must  my  readers  imagine  that 
the  tale  of  great  men  or  mighty  generals  is  nearly 
exhausted,  or  that  the  interest  attached  to  the  growth, 
the  grandeur,  and  the  decline  of  the  Koman  Common* 
wealth  is  in  any  degree  inferior  to  that  which  clung 
around  the  immortal  isles  of  Greece,  until  "  all  except 

their  sun  was  set  ?" 

Scipio,  the  conqueror  of  Hannibal,  Flaminius,  and 
Paullus,  conquerors  of  Philip  and  Perseus,  who  first 
demonstrated  the  superiority  of  the  Koman  legion 
to  the  far-famed  Macedonian  phalanx,  Marius,  the 
mighty  democrat,  Sylla,  the  last  of  the  Patricians,  the 
princely  pride  of  Pompey,  and  the  wondrous  versa- 
tility of  Caesar,  should  furnish  ample  topics  for  a  more 
spacious  margin  and  a  more  puissant  pen  than  mine. 


Yet  I  fear  not,  that  in  depicting  the  close  of  the 
last  struggle  Rome  was  ever  compelled  to  maintain  on 
lier  own  soil,  fighting  not  for  empire  but  existence  ;  in 
tracing  the  successive  steps  by  which  she  subjugated, 
West  and  East,  the  known  world,  until,  weary  with 
victory  and  seeing  nothing  more  to  vanquish,  she 
turned  her  suicidal  arms  against  lier  own  unconquered 
bosom,  I  shall  fail  to  offer  something  of  more  than 
common  interest  to  such  as  choose  to  follow  me. 

It  will  seem  strange — not  to  you  of  course — but  to 
many  of  my  readers,  that  I  should  apologize  at  this 
period,  for  the  scantiness  of  the  material  from  which  I 
have  now  got  to  draw — for  the  many  believe,  doubt- 
less, that  the  farther  we  descend  the  stream  of  time, 
the  stronger  shine  the  lights  of  knowledge,  the  clearer 
beams  the  lamp  of  veritable  history.  You  know, 
however,  too  well  that  I  should  need  repeat  it  to  you, 
that  the  descent  from  the  clear,  luminous  and  truthful 
histories  of  Herodotus,  Thucydides,  Xenophon  and 
Arrian,  to  the  brilliant  and  beautiful  but  inexact 
romancings  of  the  credulous  and  unquestioning  Liv}^,  to 
the  bald,  skeleton  narratives  of  the  partizan  Polybius, 
and  the  cold  condensations  of  Appian,  is  something 
similar  to  a  return  from  the  demonstrations  of  Newton 
or  Laplace  to  the  wild  dreams  of  the  Astronomers  of 
old. 

I  have,  moreover,  from  this  time  forth — so  soon  at 
least  as  I  shall  have  conducted  Scipio  to  his  victory  at 
Zama — no  guide   in    our   own    language,    by   whose 


PRKFACE.  XV 

intuitive  skill  in  deciphering  the  mysteries  of  ancient 
history,  even  suggestively,  to  profit.  The  history  of 
Home  in  its  most  interesting  periods  is  yet  to  be 
written;  for  it  seems  indeed  that  an  especial  and 
peculiar  fate  cuts  off  untimely  all  who  possess  that 
singular  combination  of  qualities  natural,  and  abilities 
acquired,  which  fits  them  for  so  arduous  an  under- 
taking. 

Twice  within  oiu'  own  age,  persons  so  qualified 
have  come  upon  the  stage,  Niebuhr,  the  discoverer, 
and  Arnold,  the  handler,  of  the  key  which  might  have 
unlocked  to  us,  at  least  by  close  approximation,  the 
hidden  sense  of  that  unfathomable  mystery  of  historic 
treasures,  among  which,  as  yet,  the  most  patient  and 
laborious  of  us  grope  our  way  ignorant  and  darkling. 

Twice  have  our  hopes  been  raised  to  the  highest,  of 
having  the  veil  lifted  from  before  our  eyes — twice 
have  they  been  cast  down — yet  in  neither  case  wholly 
prostrated.  Since  the  first  great  discoverer  not  only 
succeeded  in  making  plain  to  our  comprehension  much 
of  what  seemed  the  dimmest  and  most  incomprehen- 
sible in  Rome's  darkest  ages,  but  dying  left  to  us  the 
knowledge  of  his  method,  and  the  hope  at  least  of  in 
some  sort  applying  it.  Since  the  second  great  im- 
prover, advancing  on  his  plan  and  progress,  has  con- 
verted what  he  left  difficult  and  profound  disquisition 
into  easy  and  patent  narrative  ;  and,  his  guidance 
ceasing,  has  given  us  in  the  history  of  Hannibal  and 
the   Second   Punic  War,    the   ablest,    most  accurate. 


most  impartial,  and  most  eloquent  relation  of  events 
long  siiice  entombed  in  falsehood,  worse  almost  than 
oblivion,  that  ever  has  graced  our  English  language. 

The  times,  to  which  I  am  coming  in  this  volume, 
the  struggles  no  longer  between  the  ancient  people 
and  the  ancient  fathers,  but  between  the  proletarian 
populace  and  the  moneyed  nobility  of  Kome ;  the 
secret  workings  of  the  rival  factions,  aristocratic  and 
dempcratic,  as  they  were  self-styled,  from  the  days 
of  Marius  and  Sylla,  to  those  of  Brutus  and  Octavius, 
are  confessedly  the  most  painful,  I  will  not  say  despe- 
rate, to  be  unravelled,  of  all  truly  historic  ages. 

It  is  true,  that,  in  my  work,  confining  itself  in  the 
main  to  military  history,  political  strife  bears  but  a 
secondary  interest;  but  when  the  principles  of  war 
itself  are  political  and  partizan,  politics  and  the  secrets 
of  partizan  ship  must  form  an  integral  part  of  the  nar- 
rative of  the  wars. 

Feeling,  therefore,  that  I  am  entering  perhaps  upon 
too  bold  an  enterprise,  with  nothing  whereon  to  de- 
pend but  diligent  research  to  the  extent  of  my  own 
unassisted  powers,  and  nothing  w^iich  to  promise  to 
my  readers  but  the  candid  and  faithful  use  of  such 
authorities  as  I  can  command,  with  my  own  best 
deductions  from  the  same — premising  always  that  I 
have  no  preconcerted  theories,  with  regard  either  to 
men  or  measures,  to  be  bolstered  by  manufactured 
facts,,  or  misinterpreted  quotations — I  lay  my  work 
before  you  and  the  public,  in  the  hope,  at  least,  that 


PREFACE.  XVll 

if  of  little  value  itself,  it  may  contain  something 
suggestive,  to  other  and  abler  minds,  of  what  may- 
prove  advantageous  to  the  elucidation  of  historic 
truth  hereafter. 

Pray  believe  me,  my  dear  Felton, 
Ever  and  most  faithfully  yours, 

Henry  William  Hekbebt. 

The  Cedaes,  April  20,  1854. 


CONTENTS. 


I. 


PUBLIUS   CORNELIUS    SCIPIO,    AFRICANUS. 

The  Alps  and  the  Ticinus— Spain  ;  the  Battle  of  the  Ebro— Death  of  the  Scip- 
ios — ^The  Panic  of  the  Canusium — Quells  the  Mutiny  of  Metellus— The  Senate 
thanks  Varro — How  Elected  Proconsul— His  Character  and  Personal  Ap- 
pearance— Compared  with  Cromwell — ^Was  he  a  Hero  ? — Compared  with  Ma- 
homet— Roman  Scepticism — Not  a  sincere  Rehgionist — Elected  Proconsul — 
Cause  and  Manner  of  his  Election — His  Forces  and  AbiUties — Compared  to 
Wellington — Carthaginian  Spain — Topography  of  the  War  in  Spain — Descrip- 
tion of  New  Carthage— The  Aid  of  Neptune— The  Sortie— First  Assault— The 
Storming — ^The  Sack — Prizes  of  Victory — Close  of  the  First  Campaign — Has- 
drubal's  Inactivity — Second  Campaign — Operations  at  Bsecula — Influence  of 
the  Natives — ^Hasdrubal's  Retreat — Hanno's  Defeat — Capture  of  Oringis — 
Comparison  of  Forces — Plan  of  Battle — The  Punic  Elephants — Grand  Ma- 
noeuvre—Return to  Taragona — ^The  Conduct  of  the  Campaign — ^Neutrality 
Respected — ^Farther  Movements — ^Encounter  of  Squadrons — Close  of  the 
Spanish  War — Scipio  sails  to  Sicily — Scipio's  African  Army — Neutrality  re- 
spected—The  Armistice — ^The  Conflagration— The  Truce— Zama — The  Victory, 


II. 

TITUS  QUINCTIUS  FLAMININUS. 

His  Two  Campaigns — ^Providential  Ends — ^Probable .  Results — His  Character — 
Elected  Consul — The  Defiles  of  the  Aous — A  Skirmish — Turning  the  Right — ^The 
Victory — Siege  of  Etrax — Conference  of  Leaders — ^The  Army — Skirmishes — 
The  Dog's  Heads — The  Battle — ^The  Tribune — Freedom  of  Greece — The  Roman 
Slaves 133 


XX  CONTENTS. 


III. 


LUCIUS    j]:milius  paullus. 

His  First  Campaign — ^Ulterior  Spain — Adoption  of  Sons — Ligurian  Campaign — 
Preparations  for  Battle — Surrender  of  the  Ligurians — Succession  of  Perseus — 
First  Campaign — Ulterior  Spain — The  Macedonian  Passes — Passage  of  Olym- 
pus— Election  of  Paullus — ^Army  of  PauUus — Entire  Persian  Force — The  Bas- 
ternae — Sails  from  Italy — The  Defiles  of  Tempe — Passes  of  Petra  and  Volustana 
— Turning  of  the  Pass  of  Dium — Improved  Discipline — Council  of  War — Skir- 
mishing— Plutarch  and  Polybius — The  King's  Danger — The  Consul's  Pursuit 
— Castrametation — Caius  Sulpicius  Callus — The  Morn  of  Battle — Macedonian 
Army — Defeat  of  the  Pelignian  Cohorts — Success  of  the  Manoeuvre — Carnage 
and  Pursuit — Scipio  Missing — Capture  of  Perseus — Treachery  of  Epirus — ^Tri- 
umph of  Paullus — His  Oration 171 


lY. 


CAIUS    MARIUS,    OF   ARPINUM. 

Municipal  Towns — The  Roman  Constitution — Democratic  Preponderance— Con- 
sternative  Opposition — Hiatus  in  History — Early  Life — His  Prsetorship — Rome 
since  123,  B.  C. — The  Equites — State  of  the  Times — Hereditary  Royalty — 
Bribery  of  Jugurtha — The  Seige — ^Death  of  Adherbal — Jugurtha  in  Rome — Me- 
tellus  in  Africa — Treason  to  Treason — Elected  Consul — Seige  of  Thala — ^New 
Levies  of  Marius — March  to  Thala — The  Snail  Gatherer — The  Attack  by  the 
Bear — Night  Attack  of  the  Kings — Defeat  and  Carnage — Jugurtha's  Last 
Battle — Surrender  of  Jugurtha — The  Triumph — The  Celts  and  Cimbri — Cimbric 
Chiefs— The  Migration — ^miHus  Scaurus — Elected  Consul — The  Marian  Mules 
— ^Fourth  Consulate — The  Lines  at  Aries — Aquae  Sextiae — The  Passage  of  the 
Coenus— The  Teutons— The  Putrid  Plains— The  Coldi  Tende— The  Raucian 
Plains — The  Cimbric  Horse — The  Cimbric  Women — Marius  Triumphs — Sixth 
Consulship — Leaves  Rome — ^End  of  the  Social  War — The  New  Tribes — Treach- 
ery of  Cinna — His  Death 251 


CONTENTS. 


LUCIUS  CORNELIUS  SYLLA. 

His  Personal  Apppearance — His  First  Campaign — ^Escort  of  Volux — ^Treachery- 
Frustrated — Hatred  of  Sylla  and  Marius — His  Ambition — Orobazus — Social 
War — Mithridatic  "War — ^Marius  and  Sulpicius — ^Breach  of  the  Constitution — 
Consular  Elections — The  Piraeus — Sortie  en  masse — Sap  and  Retrenchment- 
The  Garrison  put  to  the  Sword — Sylla's  Difficulties — The  Country  of  the 
Copais — March  of  Hortensius — Timidity  of  the  Troops — Rivalry  of  the  March 
— Force  of  Sylla's  Legions — Manoeuvring — ^Battle  of  Chaeronea — Onset  of  Tax- 
iUes — Complete  Victory — The  Basin  of  Boeotia — His  Bravery  at  Orchomenus 
— ^Pillage  of  Boeotia — Corruption  of  Mithridates — ^Peace  with  Mithridates — 
Plunder  of  Athens — ^Policy  of  SyUa — Defeat  of  Norhanus  and  Marius — ^Victo- 
ries of  SyUa— Personal  Exposure — Character  of  Sylla's  Cruelty— His  End 355 


YI. 


CAIUS   JUIJUS   C^SAR. 

The  Name  of  Caesar — ^First  Step  in  Politics — ^The  Social  War — His  First  Cam- 
paign— Conspiracy  of  Cataline — Pompeia  and  Clodius — ^Murder  of  Piso — Second 
Conspiracy — ^Danger  from  the  Equites — ^Early  Character — His  First  Exploit — 
Dispensation  to  Canvass — ^Resigns  his  Command — ^The  Triple  Alliance — ^Dictum 
of  Cato — Service  of  the  Legions — His  Ubiquity — ^His  Clemency — ^The  Extent  of 
his  Foresight — ^His  Excellences  in  War — ^Power  over  Men — Cuts  off  the  Zurich- 
ers — ^Treated  as  Enemies — Ariovistus — ^The  Legion  of  "  The  Lark" — ^The  Fords 
of  the  Aisne — ^The  Ambush — ^The  Aduatuci — ^Third  Campaign — ^Fourth  Cam- 
paign— ^Winter  Quarters — Seventh  Campaign — Siege  of  Alesia — ^Eighth  Cam- 
paign— The  Ninth  Year — ^In  the  City — ^Tenth  Campaign — Caesar  as  a  Man — 
Fall  of  the  Republic 433 


I. 

PUBLIUS  COENELIUS  SCIPIO; 

AFEICANUS. 

Than  the  Scipios,  whether  by  descent  from  most  illustrious 
blood,  or  by  renown  of  most  illustrious  actions,  there  was  no 
family  in  Rome  more  noble.  Between  the  yeare  of  the  city  359 
and  545,  no  less  than  ten  persons,  all  of  this  name,  and  all  in 
the  direct  male  line,  held  curule  magistracies,  and  served  their 
countiy  with  distinction,  both  in  the  field  and  in  the  forum.  A 
branch  of  the  great  Cornehan  house,  the  proudest,  haughtiest, 
and  almost  the  oldest  of  the  old  patrician  houses,  the  Scipios 
were  by  blood,  by  tradition,  by  temperament,  the  most  unbend- 
ing of  the  ancieait  aristocracy ;  and  as  such,  although,  by  some- 
thing of  prescriptive  right,  which  yet  prevailed  in  Rome,  and 
much  more,  be  it  said,  by  right  of  native  virtue,  they  obtained, 
during  two  centuries  and  upward,  all  the  highest  ofiices  in  the 
gift  of  the  people,  they  never  held  even  for  a  time  the  people's 
favor. 

With  the  Punic  wars  from  their  commencement  they  were  so 
immediately  and,  so  to  speak,  hereditarily  connected,  that  when 
service  was  to  be  taken  against  Carthage,  that  service  appeared 
almost,  as  a  matter  of  cx)urse,  to  belong  to  a  Scipio.  When  in 
the  First  Punic  War,  the   Romans  by  one  of  those  gigantic 


24  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

efforts  of  energy  and  enterprise,  unequalled  in  the  annals  of  the 
world,  created  a  fleet  as  it  were  in  a  single  day,  won  with  it 
their  first  naval  battle,  and  thenceforth  disputed  the  empire  of 
the  seas  on  even  terms  against  the  greatest  maritime  power  the 
world  at  that  time  had  ever  seen,  a  Scipio  superintended  its 
construction ;  and,  although  beaten  and  made  a  prisoner  in  hia 
first  encounter  with  the  enemy,  subsequently  well  redeemed  his 
laurels,  and  well  avenged  his  disaster,  by  the  conquest  of  the 
greater  part  of  Sicily  from  the  Carthaginian  arms. 

When  it  was  known  that  the  terrible — akeady  tenible — 
Hannibal  had  passed  the  hitherto  inaccessible  ramparts  of  the 
Pyrenees,  and  was  advancing  with  giant  strides  across  the 
unexplored  wilderness  of  central  Gaul,  a  Scipio,  the  father  of  him 
who  is  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was  elected  Consul,  and  sent 
by  sea  to  Mai-seilles  with  an  army  to  encounter  the  boy  general, 
and  dispute  with  him  the  passage  of  the  Rhone,  and  the 
entrance  of  the  Alps,  whose  icy  fastnesses  he  was  the  fii-st 
to  conquer. 

That  Scipio  was  too  late  to  intercept  the  bold  invader  on  the 
Rhone  is  not  attributable  to  any  neglect  or  miscalculation  on  his 
part,  but  rather  to  the  extraordinary  energy  and  speed  with 
which  the  great  commander  opposed  to  him  had  pressed 
onward,  setting  difficulties  at  naught,  and  holding  nothing  to  be 
impossible  which  it  was  requisite  for  him  to  do.  But  that,  on 
finding  all  his  combinations  thus  overthrown,  and  his  plans 
anticipated,  he  had  the  truly  Roman  hardihood  and  perse- 
verance to  forward  his  consular  army  into  Spain,  its  proper 
destination,  while  he  himself  returned  by  sea  to  Italy,  there  to 
make  head,  as  best  he  might,  against  the  enemy  on  his  descent 
from  the  mountains,  is  a  proof  of  judgment  so  sound,  general- 
ship at  once  so  prudent  and  so  daring,  that  it  compels  me  to 
pronounce  him  a  man  of  no  ordinary  abilities,  and  a  soldier 
second  to  no  Roman  who  preceded  him. 


THE    ALPS    AND    THE    TICINUS.  2S 

"  As  a  mere  military  question,"  says  the  wise  and  cautious 
Arnold,  "  his  calculation,  though  baffled  by  the  event,  was 
sound :  but  if  we  view  it  in  a  higher  light,  the  importance  to  the 
Romans  of  retaining  their  hold  on  Spain  would  have  justified  a 
far  greater  hazard ;  for  if  the  Carthaginians  were  suffered  to 
consohdate  their  dominion  in  Spain,  and  to  avail  themselves  of 
its  immense  resources,  not  in  money  only,  but  in  men,  the 
hardiest  and  steadiest  of  Barbarians,  and  under  the  training 
of  such  generals  as  Hannibal  and  his  brother  equal  to  the  best 
soldiei"s  in  the  w^orld,  the  Romans  would  hardly  have  been  able 
to  maintain  the  contest.  Had  not  PubUus  Scipio  then  dis- 
patched his  army  to  Spain  at  this  critical  moment,  instead  of 
carrying  it  home  to  Italy,  his  son  in  all  probabiUty  would  never 
have  won  the  battle  of  Za  ma."* 

In  the  sharp  cavalry  action  on  the  banks  of  the  Tesino,  which 
was  the  first  combat  on  Italian  soil — wherein  the  Roman  horse 
and  the  allies  fought  well  against  the  Carthaginian  cuirassiers  in 
front,  un  til  the  wild  Numidians  thundered  on  both  their  flanks 
and  their  rear,  with  the  unbridled  shock  of  their  desert  barbs, 
and  routed  them  with  fearful  carnage — Scipio  was  himself 
severely  wounded  ;  and  was  rescued  from  inevitable  death,  only 
by  the  exertions  and  devotion  of  his  son,f  then  eighteen  years 
of  age,  serving  in  the  cavalry,  or  as  others  say  of  a  faithful 
LigurianJ  slave.  Arnold  at  once  discards  this  relation  of  the 
young  hero's  early  exploit,  as  a  fabrication  of  Polybius,  from 
whom  it  is  probable  that  the  other  writers  borrowed  the  legend, 
or  rather  of  Caius  Lsehus,  the  pei-sonal  friend  and  lieutenant  of 
the  elder  Africanus,  who  related  it  to  him,  says  the  historian, 
with  his  own  lips  ;  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  some  consider- 
able suspicion  does  attach  to  such  portions  of  his  narrative  as 
relate  to  this  great  and   noble  family,  the  writer  having  been 

*  Arnold  II.  283.    f  Dio  Gass,  Frag.  Peires.  LVl.     Polybius  X.  ill.  6 
X  Caelius  apud  Livium,  XXI.  46. 
2 


26  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

himself  a  near  personal  friend  and  tent-companion  of  the 
younger  Africanus,  and  as  such  certainly  liable  in  some  degree 
to  the  charge  of  having  seen  historical  events  with  the  eyes,  and 
related  them  with  the  tongues  of  the  Scipios.  I  confess,  how- 
ever, that  I  cannot  see  wherefore  so  direct  an  assertion  of  an 
author,  not  proved  to  be  unveracious,  and  speaking,  as  he 
asserts,  on  the  authority  of  a  very  competent  witness,  should  be 
absolutely  rejected  as  a  falsehood ;  the  rather  that  in  tlie  tale 
itself  there  is  nothing  to  startle  the  least  credulous,  nothing  in 
short  which  is  contrary  to  probabilities,  as  regards  the  chai-acter 
of  the  man,  or  the  nature  of  the  case.  And  I  might  perhaps 
here  observe  that  Dr.  Arnold  appears  to  me  to  have  carried  his 
usual  caution  somewhat  too  far  in  respect  to  the  traditions  rela- 
tive to  Scipio,  refusing  to  give  credit  to  him  for  deeds  positively 
attiibuted  to  him  by  many  writei-s,  while  he  unhesitatingly  gives 
the  credit  of  them  to  others  on  no  discoverable  authority,  as  in 
the  case  of  Varro,  to  which  I  shall  come  hereafter. 

Shortly  after  the  cavalry  action  on  the  Tesino,  Sempronius  the 
other  consul,  coming  up  with  his  army,  eftected  a  junction  with  that 
of  Scipio,  which  after  the  disaster  of  its  horse  had  fallen  back 
upon  Placentia,  and  lay  a  few  miles  thence  among  the  hills  inactive, 
owing  to  the  unhealed  wound  of  its  own  commander.  In  con- 
sequence of  the  disability  of  that  officer,  he  took  command  of 
the  united  force  of  the  two  consular  armies,  delivered  battle  on 
the  banks  of  the  Trebbia,  and  received  a  defeat  so  terribly 
crushing  and  complete,  as  gave  the  Romans  their  first  foretaste 
of  what  was  likely  to  befall  them  from  the  qualities  of  Hannibal 
as  a  general,  and  of  the  men  whom  he  had  formed  to 
conquest. 

This  battle  was  fought  in  the  mid- winter,  which  in  the 
marshy  plains  of  the  Po,  directly  exposed  to  the  cold  blasts 
sweeping  down  from  the  eternal  snows  of  the  Alps,  is  still  of 
unusual  severity;  and   the  loss  of  the  Carthaginians,  in  their 


SPAIN  ;    THE    BATTLE    OF    THE    EBRO.  2*1 

jbigh-blooded  African  horses  and  in  their  elephants,  to  which  the 
cold  was  intolerable,  having  been  heavy,  both  armies  went  at 
once  into  winter  quarters,  and  the  operations  of  Hannibal's  first 
campaign  on  the  Italian  soil  were  closed  triumphantly  in  the 
last  days  of  the  537th  year  of  Rome,  and  the  21'7th  before  the 
Christian  aera. 

In  the  following  year,  the  new  consuls,  Caius  Flaminius  and 
Cneius  Ser villus  Geminus,  came  into  office,  the  former  succeed- 
ing Sempronius  in  Etruria,  while  his  colleague  took  the  leading 
of  Scipio's  army  at  Arminum  ;  but  so  little  were  the  Roman 
aristocracy  discontented  with  the  conduct  of  Scipio,  that  he  was 
immediately  appointed  proconsul,  and  sent  to  command  his  own 
original  forces  in  Spain,  whither  he  had  sent  them  with  his 
brother  Cneius,  as  his  heutenant,  in  the  preceding  year ;  and 
where  they  had  already  done  good  service  against  the  two 
Hasdrubals  and  Mago,  whom  thus  far  they  had  held  in  check. 

There,  during  those  terrible  succeeding  years,  which  shook  the 
power  and  tried  the  constancy  of  Rome  to  the  utmost;  the 
yeai*s  of  the  awful  earthquake-shocks  of  Thrasymene  and  Cannse ; 
when  the  unbridled  coursers  of  the  fierce  Numidians  swept  hke 
a  hurricane,  with  fire  and  sword,  over  the  half  of  Italy ;  when, 
beyond  the  confines  of  the  old  Latin  colonies,  Rome  had 
neither  ally,  nor  fiiend,  nor  well-wisher  on  the  peninsula ;  and 
when  even  of  those  ancient  colonies  twelve  at  the  least  were 
wavering  in  their  faith,  the  Scipios  maintained  the  war,  un- 
wearied and  undaunted.  Cneius  had  already,  before  his 
brother's  arrival,  defeated  Hanno"^  and  made  him  prisoner, 
driving  the  Carthaginians  back  beyond  the  Ebro.  In  the  fol- 
lowing year  Hasdrubal,  in  full  march  to  reinforce  his  brother 
Hannibal  in  Italy,  for  which  purpose  he  had  been  strengthened 
by  a  large  force  of  Carthaginian  veterans  and  Numidian  horse, 
was  encountered  by  those  two  strenuous  brothers,  and  beaten  so 

*  Polybius  III.  76  j  though  this  is  denied  by  Appian,  VI.  15. 


28  PUBLIUS   CORNELIUS   SCIPIO. 

signally,  "  that  all  hope  was  lost  to  him  not  only  of  advancing 
into  Italy,  but  even  of  holding  securely  his  occupation  of 
Spain."* 

What  the  effect  of  the  addition  of  twenty  thousand  fresh 
troops,  largely  pro\dded  with  the  formidable  Numidiam  horse 
and  with  elephants,  to  the  already  all-victorious  camp  of  Han- 
nibal, would  have  produced  on  the  fortunes  of  Rome  had  it  been 
launched  against  them  in  that  appalling  crisis  which  succeeded 
the  unparalleled  carnage  of  Cannge,  may  readily  be  estimated ;  nor 
will  it  be  too  much,  I  think,  to  say,  that  by  this  action  beyond 
the  Ebro,  the  Scipios  did  more  toward  the  salvation  of  Rome? 
than  Fabius  with  all  his  politic  delays,  or  Marcellus  with  all  his 
headlong  daring,  all  his  real  successes  and  pretended  victories. 
For  several  succeeding  years,  they  certainly  did  well,  by  ably 
maintaining  their  ground,  and  so  far  neutrahzed  the  efforts  of 
the  Carthaginians,  that  they  entirely  cut  off  the  supply  of 
Spanish  auxiliaries  not  only  from  the  Italian,  but  from  the 
African  armies  of  their  enemy.  Publius  Scipio  moreover  acquired 
so  much  popularity  and  influence  among  the  Spanish  tribes, 
particularly  the  Celtiberians,  that  he  not  only  gradually  diverted 
them  from  Mago  and  the  Hasdrubals,  but  annexed  them  as' 
auxiliaries  not  only  to  his  own  two  original  legions,  which  had 
never  been  reinforced,  nor  had  received  any  pay  from  home,  since 
he  sent  them  out  six  years  before,  and  to  have  supported  which 
as  he  did  in  an  enemy's  country,  making  war  maintain  war,  is 
not  the  smallest  proof  of  his  strategetical  conduct  and  capacity. 

In  the  latter  j)art  of  the  year  of  the  city  452,  after  having 
maintained  the  credit  and  character  of  Rome  with  ability  for 
neai'ly  six  yeai-s,  the  Scipios  felt  themselves  strong  enough  to 
assame  the  offensive ;  and  laying  a  careful  plan  of  the  campaign 
by  which  they  hoped  entirely  to  clear  Spain  of  the  Carthagini- 
ans, they  crossed  the  river  Iberus  with  divided  forces,  and,  push- 
*  Livy  XXIII.  29-30. 


DEATH    OF    THE    SCIPIOS.  29 

ing  forward  into  the  middle  of  Southern  Spain,  wintered*  at  the 
towns  of  Castulo,  now  Cazlona,  and  Oi*so,  in  the  valley  of  the 
Baetis  or  Guadalquivir. 

Here,  it  appears  that  the  influence  of  Hasdrubal,  the  son  of 
Hamilcar,  was  still  too  great  over  the  minds  of  the  natives  for 
the  hopes  of  the  Roman  leadei*s  ;  for  no  sooner  were  those  fickle 
and  treacherous  barbarians  brought  within  the  immediate  sphere 
of  his  fascination,  than  they  melted  like  snowf  from  the  stand- 
ai'd  of  the  Scipios,  and  left  them  with  inferior  powers,  and 
divided  forces,  at  a  great  distance  from  their  resources,  and  in 
the  presence  of  three  superior  Carthaginian  armies.  These 
speedily  forming  a  junction  attacked  the  Roman  commanders 
in  detail,  and  almost  utterly  destroyed  both  armies,  killing  the 
leaders,  either  in  the  actions  or  in  the  carnage  that  followed,  for 
they  were  not  defeats  but  total  and  irreparable  routs.  A 
miserable  remnant  only  under  Titus  Fonteius,  one  of  Scipio's 
lieutenants,  and  Lucius  Marcius,  a  Roman  knight  elected  to 
command  in  that  emergency  by  the  legionaries,  maintained 
themselves  within  the  Ebro,  until  they  were  relieved  by  the 
army  of  Claudius  Nero,  which  could  now  be  spared  from  home 
duty  in  consequence  of  the  fall  of  Capua  before  the  Roman 
fortune. 

Livy  has  a  whole  tissue,J  woven  from  the  deliberate  falsehoods 
of  the  Roman  annalists,  concerning  pretended  victories  won 
from  Hasdrubal  the  son  of  Gisco,  by  this  most  ilkistrious  youth, 
who,  he  says,  alone  and  single-handed  restored  the  affairs  of 
Rome.  Not  a  particle  of  credit  is  to  be  attached,  however,  to 
these  barefaced  fictions;  nor  can  much  more  be  attributed  to 
the  tale  related  by  Livy  of  the  advance  of  Claudius  Nero,  who 
had  only  brought  out  six  thousand  foot  and  three  hundred 
hoi*se,  to  the  aid  of  the  broken  and  disheartened  remnant  cooped 
up  within  the  Ebro,  so  far  as  to  Iliturgi,  now  Andujar,  on  the 
♦  Livy  XXV.  33.        f  XXV.  39.        J  Appian  VI.  15. 


so  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

frontiei-s  of  Jaen  and  Cordova,  in  the  valley  of  the  Guadalquivir ; 
yet  there  he  is  reported  to  have  gained  signal  advantages  over 
Hasdrubal,  and  to  have  been  robbed  only  of  a  perfect  victory  by 
the  wonted  Punic  Faith,  or  that  treachery  of  which  the  Cartha- 
ginians are  continually  accused  by  the  Romans,  without  there 
existing  the  smallest  visible  cause  for  the  accusation. 

One  thing  is  certain,  that  when  the  subject  of  my  present 
sketch  was  appointed  to  the  office  and  command  of  his  late 
father,  and  relieved  Claudius  Nero  with  a  considerable  fleet  and 
army  in  the  year  545  of  Rome,  he  found  him  still  within  the 
Ebro  unassailed  indeed,  and  in  full  possession  of  that  ancient 
territory,  of  which  in  fact  during  the  last  eight  years,  and  after 
the  defeat  and  capture  of  Ilanno,  the  Romans  had  never  lost  the 
occupation.  But  as  no  permanent  progress  had  been  made 
beyond  this  line,  even  by  the  two  Scipios  at  the  head  of  there 
powerful  legions,  augmented  by  twenty  thousand  Celtiberian 
alhes,  it  is  little  probable  that  Nero,  with  less  than  a  fourth  part 
of  their  power,  should  have  attempted  a  foray  at  once  so  useless 
and  so  rash. 

In  the  meantime  the  son  of  Publius  Scipio,  whether  or  not  he 
was  the  preserver  of  his  father's  life  on  the  banks  of  the  Tesino, 
had  distinguished  himself  singularly  during  the  progress  of  the 
war,  and  especially  at  Canusium,  when  he  was  present  at  the 
tumultuous  and  terror-stricken  councils  which  succeeded  the 
overwhelming  disaster,  and  almost  incredible  carnage  of  Cannae. 
*'  The  scene,  at  that  place,"  says  Arnold,  "  was  like  the  disorder 
of  a  ship  going  to  pieces,  when  fear  makes  men  desperate, 
and  the  instinct  of  self-preservation  swallows  up  every  other 
feeling." 

And  so  general  and  despairing  was  this  panic,  that  a  con- 
spiracy was  set  on  foot  among  the  principal  young  men,  mostly 
of  equestrian  rank,  which  had  alread}^  perverted  the  minds  of 
nearly  one  half  the  soldiers  who  had  escaped  from  the  slaughter, 


THE    PANIC    AT    CANUSIUM.  31 

with  the  intent  to  cut  their  way  to  the  coast,  seize  shipping,  and 
foi-saking  Italy  for  ever  and  the  fortunes  of  Eome  as  hopeless, 
sell  their  swords  to  some  foreign  king,  and  make  their  camp 
their  countiy. 

The  extent  to  which  this  plot  was  carried  appears  at  once 
when  we  consider  that  in  the  fii*st  instance  only  four  thousand ' 
men  of  the  infantry  and  two  hundred*  knights  were  collected 
at  Canusium,  previous  to  the  arrival  of  Varro,  who  was  at  this 
time  lying  at  Venusiaf  with  a  somewhat  larger  body  of  dis- 
pirited and  disorganized  fugitives  of  all  arms ;  and  that  two 
years  afterward,  the  censoi-s  judging  an  extraordinary  punish' 
ment  necessary  for  an  offence  so  extraordinary,  degi-aded  every 
knight  concerned  in  this  affair,  besides  depriving  no  less  than 
two  thousand^  citizens  of  their  elective  franchise,  who  had  miscon- 
ducted themselves  on  this  occasion  or  avoided  military  duty  on 
fnvolous  pretexts  within  the  last  four  years,  and  sentencing  them 
to  serve  unto  the  termination  of  the  war  in  Sicily,  as  common 
legionaiies  in  the  ranks. 

It  appears  that,  with  the  men  rallied  at  Canusium,  there  were 
four  tribunes  of  the  soldiers  in  command — Fabius  Maximus,  son 
of  the  dictator,  of  the  fii*st  legion,  Lucius  Publicius  Bibulus  and 
PubHus  Cornelius  Scipio,  both  of  the  second,  and  Appius  Clau- 
dius Pulcher  of  the  third,  who  had  recently  been  sedile ;  and 
that,  by  the  unanimous  consent  of  all  the  men  present,  the 
supreme  command  was  temporarily  conferred  on  Scipio,  who  was 
an  exceedingly  young  man  scarcely  yet  in  his  twentieth  year,  and 
Appius  Claudius. 

To  these,§  while  they  were  holding  council,  with  a  few  leading 
men,  as  to  what  steps  should  be  fii-st  taken,  arose  Publius  Furius 
Philus,  son  of  a  consular,  and  disclosed  to  them  the  secret  of  the 

*  Livy  XXII.  52.      f  Livy  XXII.  54.      J  Livy  XXIV.  18. 
i  Livy  XXII.  53.  Val.  Max.  V.  7.  Dio  Cass.  Frag.  Peireso  XLIX.  i. 


32  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

plot,  at  the  head  of  which  he  said  was  Lucius  Csecihus  Metellus, 
Df  whose  views  he  was  himself  a  participant. 

Fearful  as  had  been  the  event  of  the  day,  and  almost  hope- 
ess  as  appeared  the  state  of  the  EepubHc,  spirit-broken  and 
lemoralized  as  they  were  by  the  last  most  lamentable  issue  of 
.heir  arms,  that  little  band  was  not  yet  prepared  to  desert  their 
countiy  or  dishonor  the  high  name  of  Romans.  For  a  moment, 
chey  were  thundei-struck  and  stood  aghast  at  the  mere  sugges- 
tion, and  then  desired  to  refer  it  to  a  general  council  of  war. 
There  is,  I  beheve,  scarcely  an  instance  on  record,  in  which  a 
council  of  war  has  determined  on  the  bolder  line  of  conduct, 
when  the  alternative  has  been  directly  submitted  to  it;  but 
fortunately  for  Rome,  for  Europe,  for  the  world,  there  was  one 
present,  who,  though  but  a  boy  in  years,  was  a  man  already  in 
forecast  and  wisdom,  a  leader  by  virtue  of  that  instinct  which, 
in  some  singularly  endowed  characters,  at  once  and  from  the 
first,  supplies  the  place  of  experience. 

"  The  youthful  Scipio,"  says  Livy,*  and  I  do  not  hesitate  here 
to  quote  him  as  full  and  credible  authority — being  confirmed  to 
the  letter  by  Dio  Cassius  and  Valerius  Maximus,  and  indirectly 
by  Appian,f  nor  less  because,  from  the  silence  of  Polybius,  it  is 
clear  he  has  followed  some  other  historian — "  predestined  to  be 
the  victorious  general  in  this  war,  exclaimed,  *  That  in  such  dis- 
asters as  this,  audacity  and  action  are  .the  two  things  requisite, 
not  consultation.  That  all  who  wished  well  to  the  Republic 
should  take  up  arms  and  follow  him,  for  that  in  no  place  of  a 
truth  are  any  camps  so  hostile  as  where  such  treason  is  con- 
templated." Thence,  followed  only  by  a  few,  he  went  direct  to 
the  quarters  of  Metellus,  and  there  finding  that  council  of  youths 
in  session,  of  which  he  had  been  informed,  he  drew  his  sword  in 
their  faces,  and  exclaimed,  *  From  the  resolve  of  my  own  mind  I 
swear,  that  I  will  not  forsake  the  republic  of  the  Roman  people, 
*  Livy  XXIT.  -53.  f  Appian  VII.  26. 


QUELLS    THE    MUTINY    OF    METELLUS.  33 

nor  will  suffer  any  other  Eoman  citizen  to  forsake  it.  If  know- 
ingly I  fail  in  this,  Jupiter,  best  and  greatest,  smite  me,  my 
house,  my  family,  and  all  that  belongs  to  me,  with  death  in  its 
direst  form.  To  these  words  of  mine,  Lucius  Caecilius,  I  insist 
that  thou  must  swear,  and  all  the  rest  of  you  here  present. 
Who  will  not  swear,  let  him  know  that  against  him  this  sword 
is  naked.'  And  thereupon,  fearful  no  less  than  if  they  had 
seen  Hannibal  himself  among  them,  they  all  swore  and  sub- 
mitted themselves  to  Scipio's  protection." 

This  vigorous  and  energetic  course,  worthy  a  hero  of  the  older 
days  of  Greece  when  heroes  w^ere,  undoubtedly  saved  Rome. 
"  Within  the  last  two  yeai*s,"  says  Appian,  "  the  Romans*  had 
lost,  warring  in  Italy  against  Hannibal,  not  less  than  one 
hundred  thousand  men,  of  their  own  citizens  and  their  allies." 
Now  in  Roman  armies  the  force  of  the  legions  and  of  the  allies 
of  the  Latin  name  was  always  equal,  so  that  the  actual  Roman 
loss  cannot  have  amounted  to  less  than  fifty  thousand  citizens, 
from  a  state  the  whole  population  of  which  could  furnish  only 
two  hundred  and  seventy  thousandf  two  hundred  and  thirteen 
male  citizens,  above  seventeen  yeai-s  of  age. 

Or  otherwise  :  Within  the  space  of  less  than  two  years,  one 
fifth  part  of  her  men  had  fallen,  and  that  without  one  ti*ansient 
gleam  of  success,  one  accidental  stroke  of  fortune,  which  might 
lead  them  to  hope  for  better  things  in  future.  The  second  city 
of  Italy,  Capua,"^  which  had  heretofore  remained  true  to  Rome 
in  her  most  perilous  trials,  which,  according  to  the  requisition  of 
the  Roman  commissioners  themselves,  was  capable  of  raising 
without  unusual  effort  an  army  of  thirty  thousand  foot  and  four 
thousand  hoi-se,  had  opened  her  gates  to  the  enemy,  and  formed 
with  him  a  close  alliance,  offensive  and  defensive. 

It  cannot  be  doubted,  that  if,  in  addition  to  all  these  calami- 

*  Appian  VII.  25.         f  Livy,  Epitome  of  Book  XX. 
I  Livy,  Epitome  of  Book  XX. 
2* 


34  rUBLlUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

ties,  enough  in  themselves  to  shake  the  resolution  of  the  bravest 
state,  the  despairing  counsels  of  these  young  men,  the  very 
flower  of  Rome's  youthful  nobility,  had  been  adopted,  a  univer- 
sal revolt  of  all  the  colonies  and  the  destruction  of  the  republic 
must  have  followed.  But  Scipio's  ready  wnt  and  brave  devotion 
met  with  the  success  they  merited,  and  harbingered,  if  they  did 
not  arouse,  that  indomitable  spirit  of  the  Roman  aristocracy, 
which  never  blenched,  never  wavered,  never  hesitated  at  any 
sacrifice,  never  counted  the  loss  of  anything  a  loss,  so  long  as 
that  loss  might  be  a  gain  to  Rome,  until  their  almost  superhu- 
man enemy  was  summoned  homeward  to  defend  his  country's 
hearths  and  altars  against  the  young  antagonist,  whom  on  that 
night  of  his  greatest  victory  Rome's  destiny  evoked  against  him. 

On  the  following  morning  Varro  came  up  from  Venusia  with 
the  remainder  of  the  army,  which  raised  the  whole  effective 
force  of  those  who  had  rallied  from  the  field  to  about  ten 
thousand  men,  beat  off  the  cavalry  of  Hannibal  as  it  rode  up  in 
all  its  confidence  and  daring  to  the  veiy  gates  of  the  town,  and 
then  "  neither  despairing  nor  in  consternation,  but  with  sound 
judgment,  as  if  no  disaster  had  befallen  him,  ordered  and 
carried  out  everything  most  advisable  in  that  crisis." J 

This  done,  he  resigned  his  command  to  Marcus  Marcellus, 
one  of  the  Prsetors  for  the  year,  who,  lying  at  Ostia,  was  com- 
manded to  march  up  his  single  legion  whereupon  to  rally  the 
relics  of  the  two  consular  armies  ;  and  then  returned  to  Rome, 
calmly  to  meet  the  judgment  of  the  Senate,  which,  as  being  of 
plebeian  origin  and  elected  by  the  popular  party,  he  had  every 
reason  to  expect  condemnatory  in  the  last  degree. 

It  is  remarkable  that  Dr.  Arnold  ascribes  to  Terentius  Varro, 

the  whole  merit  of  suppressing  this  conspiracy,  while  no  author 

who  has  been  yet  discovered  by  the  diligence  of  Professor  Hare, 

Arnold's  posthumous  editor  and  candid  expositor,  makes  any 

*  Dio  Cassias,  Frag.  Peires.,  XLIX.  2. 


THE    SENATE    THANKS    VARRO.  35 

praiseworthy  mention  whatever  of  that  unfortunate  general, 
with  the  exception  of  Dio,  in  the  short  passage  quoted  above, 
and  Appian,  who  briefly  states  that  "  he  endeavored  to  infuse 
spirit  into  the  army"  before  returning  to  Rome.  I  do  not,  how- 
ever, regard  this  as  any  error,  much  less  want  of  candor,  of  the 
great  historian,  but  rather  as  an  instance  of  that  singular  and 
instinctive  shrewdness  which  enabled  him  and  his  predecessor, 
Niebuhr,  to  arrive  suddenly  from  the  slightest  hints  at  true  con- 
clusions. 

The  two  brief  paragraphs  above  quoted,  together  with  the 
fact  that  the  Senate  came  out  to  meet  the  defeated  consul,  their 
own  poUtical  enemy,  moreover,  and  thanked  him  "  for  that  he 
had  not  despaired  of  the  republic,"  was  confirmation  strong  as 
proof  to  the  clear  mind  of  Arnold. 

The  thanks  of  the  Senate  to  the  fugitive  leader  have  never 
been  explained  at  all,  or  explained,  Hterally  ad  absurdum,  by 
other  writers,  who  have  grossly  told  us  that  the  "  not  daspairing'» 
consisted  in  giving  battle  with  an  overwhelming  superiority  of 
numbers ;  when  in  fact  he  was  under  direct  orders  to  fight,  and 
was  in  command  of  not  less  than  eighty-nine  thousand  six  hun- 
dred hoi-se  and  foot,*  while  Hannibal  was  certainly  inferior  by 
nearly  one  half,  in  force.f 

To  suppose,  therefore,  that  for  simply  obeying  orders  and  not 
showing  himself  a  palpable  coward,  he  received  the  thanks  of 
the  Senate,  is  so  plainly  absurd,  that  it  proves  clearly  that  he 
did  receive  them  for  something  done  not  in,  but  after,  the  battle. 
And  what  was  there  to  be  done  thereafter,  but  to  repress  the 

=*  Polybius  III.  107.  The  Consuls,  Paulus  and  Varro,  had  each 
four  Roman  legions,  each  of  5,000  foot  and  300  horse,  =  20,000  foot 
and  1,200  horse,  united,  42,400  men  ;  besides  four  legions  of  the  Latin 
name,  each  of  5,000  foot  and  900  horse,  singly  20,000  foot  and  9,600 
horse,  =  47,200  men;  42,400  Romans  and  47,200  allies  =  89,600 
men. 

t  Arnold,  II.,  314. 


56  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

mutinous  spirit  of  despair  which  had  manifested  itself,  and  to 
re-organize  the  disorganized  fugitives  from  that  field  of  blood  ? 
This  he  did,  and  did  so  effectually  and  so  well,  that  he  merited 
and  received  honors,  rarely  granted  by  a  Roman  Senate  to  an 
unsuccessful  general,  and  by  the  same  Senate  be  it  noticed,  which 
so  piteously  punished  and  disgraced  the  authors  of  the  meeting. 

But  if  Dr.  Arnold's  judgment  is  perfectly  satisfactory  to  me 
in  the  case  of  Varro,  it  is  by  no  means  equally  so  in  the  case  of 
the  young  Scipio ;  for  while  I  admit  his  right  to  conclude  from 
facts,  wanting  authorities,  in  the  one  case,  I  cannot  admit  the 
propriety  of  rejecting  or  doubting  positive  authorities,  facts  hke- 
wise  coinciding,  in  the  other. 

It  is  true,  that  at  a  very  early  age  he  was  with  his  brother 
Lucius  created  Curule  ^dile;  the  very  earliest  doubtless  at 
which  he  was  legally  eligible — Polybius  says  in  the  very  year  in 
which  his  father  sailed  for  Spain,  that  is  to  say  according  to  his 
own  synchronism,  for  in  the  preceding  chapter  he  makes  him 
save  his  father's  life  at  the  Tesino — that  is  in  the  preceding  year 
— when  only  seventeen.  But  this  is  absurd — for  no  one  ever 
heard,  during  the  Republic,  of  a  boy  of  eighteen  holding  a 
Curule  oflSce — and  it  is  very  clear  that  there  is  some  error  in  the 
Roman  chronology,  as  relating  to  the  life  of  this  distinguished 
man ;  for  if  he  had  been  seventeen  as  Polybius*  states  in  the 
winter  of  437,  he  could  have  been  but  twenty-four  in  the  spring 
of  445,  when  he  was  elected  proconsul — at  which  age  Livyf  rates 
him — whereas  Arnold,J  with  both  these  authorities  before  him, 
reckons  his  age,  at  this  time,  as  twenty-seven ;  and,  to  prove 
that  the  error  is  not  textual,  draws  a  parallel  between  his  years 
and  those  of  Napoleon,  when  appointed  to  the  leading  of  tlie 
army  of  Italy,  in  view  doubtless  of  some  farther  authority  which 
I  cannot  discover. 

*  Polybius  XIII.  t  Livy  XXVI.  18.  J  Arnold  II.  449. 


HOW    ELECTED    PROCONSUL.  37 

Be  this,  however,  as  it  may,  it  cannot  be  denied  that,  having 
been  elected  Curule  JEdile  at  the  earliest  lawful  moment, 
through  some  casual  popular  favor — obtained  as  Polybius  says 
by  his  beauty,  his  courteous  address,  and  his  large  liberality,  as 
Livy  by  a  repute  of  sanctity  and  mystical  semi-divine  inspirations 
— having  filled  no  higher  office  than  that  of  ^dile,  and — if  not 
at  Canusium,  after  Cannae — never  having  distinguished  himself 
at  all,  he  was  appointed  proconsul  by  unanimous  acclamation, 
and  entrusted,  an  untried  boy,  with  the  command  of  a  war, 
next  to  that  raging  in  the  heart  of  Italy,  the  most  vital  to 
Eome. 

Who  believes  this  of  Rome,  at  a  period  too  when  the  Dictator 
Fabius  actually  refused  to  receive  the  free  vote  of  the  first 
century  in  the  Consular  Comitia,  but  called  it  back  and  bade  it 
vote  over  again,  telhng  the  people  that  it  was  not  for  them  now 
to  elect  ordinary  magistrates,  and  charging  them  "  this  day  to 
elect  consuls,  as  they  would,  if  standing  under  arms,  in  array  for 
present  battle,  elect  two  generals,  under  whose  conduct  and 
auspices  they  would  fight,  to  whom  their  sons  should  swear  the 
oath  of  mihtary  service,  to  whose  summons  they  should  gather 
to  the  field,  under  whose  care  and  safeguard  they  should  give 
battle  to  the  enemy," — who,  I  say,  believes  this  of  Rome,  will 
believe  anything. 

But  it  is  clear  to  me,  that  no  man  in  that  year,  nor  in  any 
subsequent  year  of  Rome,  previous  to  the  abandonment  of  Italy 
by  Hannibal,  could  possibly  have  been  elected  to  any  office, 
involving  the  command  of  any  army — much  less  of  one  so  im- 
portant as  that  of  Spain — unless  the  Senate,  and  above  all,  the 
wise  and  patriotic  men  who  were  then  its  leading  members,  as 
Fabius,  Quintus  Fulvius,  and  Titus  Manlius,  had  been  perfectly 
satisfied  with  the  fitness  of  the  choice.  For,  henceforth  to  the 
end  of  the  war,  the  officers  of  each  year  were  indubitably  agreed 
on  by  the  Senate  beforehand,  and  submitted  merely  to  the  rati- 


38  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

fication  of  the  people ;  who  in  their  wisdom  submitted  to  such 
unconstitutional  dictation,  satisfied  that  it  was  done  for  the  best 
by  the  Senate,  and  that  it  was  for  the  best  that  they  should  do 
so  themselves. 

Nor  does  the  story,  which  we  find  in  all  the  authore  of  the 
time,  to  the  effect  that  no  candidates  would  ofier  themselves  for 
those  two  proconsulships — for  the  filHng  of  which  especial 
comitia  were  held — on  account  of  the  disastrous  state  of  the 
Spanish  war,  and  their  unwillingness  to  hazard  the  risk  of 
reputation,  amount  to  sfnything  more  than  this — if  it  be  true  at 
all — that  it  was  a  preconcerted  and  settled  matter  that  Scipio 
should  be  the  man  to  whom  the  prosecution  of  his  father's  and 
liis  uncle'^  war  must  be  assigned.  This  being  known,  of  course, 
no  one  opposed  him. 

Had  it  not  been  so,  there  would  have  been  no  lack  of  eager 
candidates  for  the  post  of  honor ;  since,  however  disastrous  the 
Spanish  war  might  be,  and  however  great  the  hazard  of  being 
matched  against  Mago  and  the  two  Asdrubals,  yet  more  disas- 
trous was  the  war  of  Italy,  and  yet  greater  the  hazard  of 
encountering  Hannibal,  the  invincible.  Yet  not  for  that,  had 
there  been  any  hesitancy  of  the  patricians  or  the  people  to  offer 
themselves  for  any  office  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest. 

Therefore,  I  regard  it  as  a  fact,  beyond  the  necessity  of  argu- 
ment, that  Scipio,  who  served  at  Cannse  in  a  rank  equivalent  to 
that  of  a  lieutenant  colonel  in  the  present  day,  if  not  superior, 
had  proved  himself  sufficiently  a  soldier  before  that  disaster; 
and  did,  on  that  occasion,  by  his  own  energy  and  force  of  char- 
acter suppress  the  incipient  mutiny,  which  would  have  been  his 
country's  destruction  if  unchecked ;  displaying  not  the  mere 
soldier's  qualities  of  daring  and  devotion,  but  the  forecast,  the 
intuitive  perception,  and  the  instinctive  action,  which  presage  in 
the  man,  the  statesman  and  the  general. 
*  Livy  XXIV.  9. 


HIS    CHARACTER.  39 

Thus  far,  I  have  lagged  somewhat  on  mj  way,  yet  1  trust  not 
unprofitably,  and  must  request  my  readei-s  to  bear  with  me ; 
for  had  I  rushed  at  once  in  medias  res^  and  taken  up  my  hero 
at  the  date  of  his  election  only,  that  which  is  to  follow  must 
needs  have  been  perplexed  and  indistinct ;  and  neither  the  im- 
portance of  the  war,  which  we  shall  soon  find  him  waging  in  an 
obscure,  remote,  and  barbarous  corner  of  the  world,  the  last  spot 
of  Europe,  and  the  extremity,  as  men  then  believed,  of  the  uni- 
vei*se,  nor  the  real  greatness  of  his  genius  and  his  deeds,  would 
have  been  perceptible. 

Henceforth,  we  have  to  do  with  himself  alone  ;  and,  if  I  can- 
not promise  to  lay  before  my  readers  the  picture  of  a  perfect 
and  unselfish  patriot  such  as  Epaminondas  ;  of  a  truly  honest 
man  and  consistent  philosopher,  such  as  Xenophon;  or  of  a 
thunderbolt  of  war  such  as  Hannibal  or  Alexander,  I  can  at 
least  present  to  them  the  portraiture  of  a  great  general,  and  very 
great  man. 

As  a  general,  if  his  campaigns  are  less  magnificently  bold  and 
dashing  than  those  of  others  who  might  be  named,  they  present 
fewer  faults  than  those  of  almost  any.  Indeed  I  know  not 
where  from  his  fii-st  to  his  last  battle  to  look  for  a  single  error  of 
judgment,  or  failure  of  execution. 

As  a  man,  he  was,  in  ray  eyes,  very  far  from  perfect ;  yet  his 
veiy  imperfections  are  of  that  strange  and  half-fascinating  nature, 
which  rather  add  interest  and  attractiveness  to  a  character,  than 
the  reverse ;  even  as  shadows,  in  a  striking  landscape,  if  not 
unduly  dark  or  numerous,  render  the  lights  more  brilliant  and 
effective  by  the  contrast. 

There  is  a  general  desire  in  almost  every  breast  to  know 
something  concerning  the  personal  appearance  and  habits,  nay 
even  the  dress  and  daily  deportment  of  historical  personages, 
with  whom  we  are  about  to  become  more  intimately  acquainted ; 
nor  is  this  desire  so  frivolous  and  absurd  as  it  would  on  the  first 


40  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

impression  strike  us  to  be.  For  all  men  are  in  some  degree, 
more  or  less,  physiognomists,  and  form  their  first  opinions  at 
sight,  which  perhaps  are  never  entirely  eradicated ;  nor  is  this 
true  of  men  only  ;  for  children,  before  they  are  capable  of  speech, 
and  dogs  to  a  very  high  degree,  will  show  symptoms  of  attrac- 
tion to  one  stranger,  and  repugnance  toward  another,  on  a  first 
interview ;  and  what  is  more  remarkable,  they  are  very  rarely 
deceived  in  their  'prima  fade  judgments. 

Nor  is  this  tendency  to  attribute  good  qualities  to  the  good 
mien  and  noble  person,  and  the  reverse  to  the  down-looking  and 
deformed,  confined  to  those  whom  we  see,  to  admire  or  to  shrink 
from,  with  our  outward  eyes.  On  the  contrary,  I  believe  that 
it  often  influences,  perhaps  I  should  say  prejudices,  our  opinions 
concerning  those  of  whom  we  merely  read  in  history  or  fiction. 
I  will  believe,  for  instance,  that  the  pretended  deformity,  the 
withered  arm  and  distorted  shoulder  of  him  whom  we  know 
chiefly  as  the  humpbacked  tyrant  has  done  as  much  to  render 
him  odious  for  ever,  as  the  alleged  slaughter  of  his  infant 
nephew,  the  facts  being,  that  he  was  as  straight  and  well-made 
a  man  as  any  of  his  court ;  and  the  strong  probability,  that  he 
was  wholly  guiltless  of  the  pretended  murdei-s  in  the  Tower. 
And,  in  the  case  of  Mary  Stuart,  of  Scotland,  it  cannot  be  dis- 
puted that  we  are  swayed  from  true  judgment  of  her  character 
and  crimes  by  the  mere  report  of  her  loveliness,  in  a  scarcely 
less  degree  than  were  her  contemporaries  by  its  present  reality. 

I  do  not  think  it,  therefore,  beneath  the  dignity  of  history  to 
relate,  as  it  stands  on  sure  record,  that  the  remarkable  influence 
which  Scipio  possessed  over  the  minds  of  men,  was  owing  not  a 
little  to  his  singular  personal  beauty^  to  his  unusual  dignity  of 
deportment,  to  his  great  convei-sational  talents,  and  great  suavity 
of  demeanor.  There  was  in  him,  says  Cicero,  "  a  certain  princely 
grace  and  majesty.  Furthei'more  he  was  marvellous  gentle  and 
courteous  unto  them  that  came  to  him,  and  had  an  eloquent 


HIS    PERSONAL    APPEARANCE    AND    CHARACTER.  41 

tongue,  and  a  passing  gift  to  win  every  man.  He  was  very 
grave  in  his  gesture  and  behavior,  and  ever  wore  long  hair.  In 
fine,  he  was  a  truly  noble  captain,  worthy  of  all  commendation, 
and  excelled  in  all  virtues,  which  did  so  delight  his  mind  that  he 
was  wont  to  say  that  he  was  never  less  idle  than  when  at  leisure, 
or  less  alone  than  when  alone."* 

To  come  fi-om  the  person  to  the  mind  of  this  very  remarka- 
ble man,  we  shall  find  the  character  of  the  latter  no  less  pecu- 
liar and  abnormal,  than  of  the  former  striking  as  un-Roman. 
But  in  regard  to  this  we  shall  have  much  more  difficulty  in  com- 
ing to  any  certain  or  tangible  conclusion. 

We  find,  in  the  first  place,  that  from  the  period  of  his  fii'st 
assuming  the  dress  of  manhood,  he  put  forward  pretensions  to  a 
pecuhar  sanctity,  aflfecting  never  to  engage  in  any  business, 
whether  of  a  private  or  public  nature,  until  he  had  ascended 
into  the  Capitol,  and  there  remained  shut  up  alone  in  the  sanc- 
tuary with  the  god.f  "And  this  practice,"  says  Li\^,  "which 
was  kept  up  through  his  whole  life,  whether  by  design  or  acci- 
dent, gave  credit  among  many  to  the  popular  belief,  that  he  was 
a  man  of  divine  descent ;  and  produced  the  same  fable,  which 
had  been  previously  circulated  concerning  Alexander  the  Great, 
and  of  the  same  absurdity  and  falsehood,  that  he  had  been  con- 
ceived of  an  enormous  serpent,  and  that  the  vision  of  that  pro- 
digious thing  had  been  frequently  seen  in  his  mother's  chamber, 
but  ever  ghded  away  on  the  entrance  of  men,  and  vanished  from 
their  eyes." J  The  historian  adds,  that  he  never  directly  attempted 
to  deceive  any  one  by  such  fables  as  this,  but  rather  increased 
his  belief  in  their  truth,  by  a  peculiar  art  which  he  possessed,  of 
exciting  wonder  and  admiration  without  either  affirmation  or 
denial. 

*  Cicero  Off-  III.  1,  quoted  in  Anthon's  Class.  Die.  I  presume  as 
translated  in  Berwick's  Life  of  Scip.  Afr. 

t  Dio  Cassias,  Frag.  Peireso,  LVI.  2.  J  Livy  XXVI.  19. 


42  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

It  will  be  observed,  that  in  the  word  sanctity,  which  I  pur- 
posely employed  in  speaking-  of  his  pretensions,  something 
totally  different  is  intended,  from  what  we  mean,  when  we  say 
piety. 

To  the  ancients  prayer  and  self-humiliation,  or  the  seeking  of 
pardon  through  penitence,  were  things  unknown,  so  that  the 
supei-stition  or  hypocrisy,  be  it  which  it  might,  of  Scipio,  when 
he  shut  himself  up  alone  to  commune  with  Jupiter  in  the  Capi- 
tol, was  a  totally  different  thing  from  the  superstition  or  hypo- 
crisy of  Louis  the  Xlth  of  France,  when  he  grovelled  on  his 
knees,  before  a  pewter  image  of  the  Virgin  in  his  hat-band,  im- 
ploring her  pardon  in  advance  for  crimes  which  he  was  resolved 
to  commit  thereafter. 

The  superstition  or  hypocrisy  of  Scipio  claimed  that  he  was 
in  direct  communication  with  the  god ;  the  hearer  of  divine  sor- 
rows, the  seer  of  prophetic  visions,  the  one  emphatically  guided 
by  the  counsels  of  the  ruler  of  the  univei'se. 

The  superstition  or  hypocrisy  of  Louis  XL,  claimed  nothing 
but  the  right,  possessed  by  every  human  being,  of  imploring 
pardon,  whence  his  religion,  such  as  it  w^as,  taught  him  that 
pardon  was  to  be  attained. 

The  superstition  or  hypocrisy  of  the  one  might  possibly  de- 
ceive himself,  but  was  certainly  calculated  eminently  to  cheat, 
and  did  in  truth  cheat  others. 

The  supei-stition  or  hypocrisy  of  the  other  must  certainly 
have  deceived  himself,  for  he  never  applied  it  to  any  other  end ; 
but  could  assuredly  cheat  no  one  else,  unless  it  were  the  pew- 
ter image  of  the  Virgin  in  his  hat-band.  And  this,  absurd  as  it 
may  seem — far  be  it  from  me  to  write  iiTeverently  of  any  creed — 
it  almost  appeare,  from  some  of  his  extant  prayers,  he  thought 
to  do;  as  if  the  Virgin  woi-shipped  at  one  shrine,  were  not 
aware  of  crimes  confessed  to  the  Virgin  at  another.     Mistaken 


HIS    CHARACTER.  4? 

or  assumed  piety,  as  of  an  erring  man,  was  the  characteristic  of 
the  one. 

Mistaken  or  assumed  sanctity,  as  of  an  admitted  saint  and 
seer,  that  of  the  other. 

It  is  therefore  to  Cromwell,  or  yet  more  to  Mahomet,  that 
Scipio  is  to  be  compared ;  and  by  nearly  the  same  tests  with 
them  is  he  to  be  tried,  as  enthusiast  or  hypocrite. 

Accordingly,  it  is  to  Cromwell  that  Dr.  Arnold  has  compared 
him  ;  and  that  so  eloquently  and  ably,  although  I  cannot  agree 
with  his  verdict  in  many  points,  which  I  shall  take  the  liberty  to 
refer  to  hereafter,  that  I  shall  quote  this  fine  passage  without 
hesitation  or  apology. 

"But  Polybius,"*  he  says,  after  stating  what  I  have  told 
above  regarding  the  visits  to  the  temple  of  Jupiter,  "  by  temper 
and  circumstances  a  rationalist,  is  at  great  pains  to  assure  his 
readei-s  that  Scipio  owed  no  part  of  his  greatness  to  the  gods, 
and  that  his  true  oracle  was  the  clear  judgment  of  his  own 
mind.  According  to  him,  Scipio  did  but  impose  upon  and  laugh 
at  the  credulity  of  the  vulgar ;  speaking  of  the  favor  shown  him 
by  the  gods,  while  he  knew  the  goc^  to  be  nothing.f  Livy, 
with  a  truer  feeling,  which  taught  him  that  a  hero  cannot  be  a 
hypocrite,  suggests  a  doubt,  though  timidly,  as  if  in  fear  of  the 
scepticism  of  his  age,  whether  the  great  Scipio  was  not  really 
touched  by  some  feelings  of  superstition,  whether  he  did  not  in 
some  degree  speak  what  he  himself  believed. 

"  A  mind  like  Scipio's,  working  its  way  under  peculiar  influ- 
ences of  time  and  country,  cannot  but  move  irregularly ;  it  can- 
not but  be  full  of  contradictions.  Two  hundred  yeai-s  later,  the 
mind  of  the  dictator  Caesar  acquiesced  contentedly  in  Epicurean- 
ism ;  he  retained  no  more  of  enthusiasm  than  was  inseparable 
from  the  intensity  of  his  intellectual  power,  and  the  fervor  of 
Eis  courage,  even  amid  his  utter  moral  degradation.  But  Scipio 
*  Polybius  X.  2,  5,  7.  t  Livy  XXVI.  1 9 


44  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

could  not  be  like  Csesar.  His  mind  rose  above  the  state  of 
things  around  him ;  his  spirit  was  solitary  and  kingly ;  he  was 
cramped  by  Hving  among  those  as  his  equals,  whom  he  felt 
fitted  to  guide  as  from  some  higher  sphere ;  and  he  retired  at 
last  to  Liternum,  to  breathe  freely,  to  enjoy  the  simplicity  of  child- 
hood, since  he  could  not  fulfil  his  national  calling  to  be  a  hero 
king.  So  far  he  stood  apart  from  his  countrymen,  admired, 
reverenced,  but  not  loved.  But  he  could  not  shake  off  all  the 
influences  of  his  time ;  the  virtue,  public  and  pi-ivate,  which  still 
existed  at  Rome,  the  reverence  paid  by  the  wisest  and  best  men 
to  the  religion  of  their  fathers,  were  elements  too  congenial  to 
his  nature,  not  to  retain  their  hold  on  it ;  they  cherished  that 
nobleness  of  soul  in  him,  and  that  faith  in  the  invisible  and 
divine,  which  two  centuries  of  growing  unbelief  rendered  almost 
impossible  in  the  days  of  Caesar.  Yet  how  strange  must  the 
conflict  be,  when  faith  is  combined  with  the  highest  intellectual 
power,  and  its  appointed  object  is  no  better  than  Paganism. 
Longing  to  believe,  yet  repelled  by  palpable  falsehood,  crossed 
inevitably  by  snatches  of  unbelief,  in  which  hypocrisy  is  ever 
close  at  the  door,  it  breaks  out  desperately,  as  it  may  seem,  into 
the  region  of  dreams  and  visions,  and  mysterious  communings 
with  the  invisible,  as  if  longing  to  find  that  food  in  its  own  crea- 
tions, which  no  outward  objective  truth  offers  to  it.  The  pro- 
portions of  behef  and  unbelief  in  the  human  mind  in  such 
cases,  no  human  judgment  can  determine  ;  they  are  the  wondere 
of  history ;  characters  inevitably  misrepresented  by  the  vulgar, 
and  viewed  even  by  those  who  have  in  some  sense  the  key  to 
them  as  a  mystery,  not  fully  to  be  comprehended,  and  still  less 
explained  to  others.  The  genius  which  conceived  the  incom- 
prehensible character  of  Hamlet  would  alone  be  able  to 
describe  with  intuitive  truth  the  character  of  Scipio  or  of  Crom- 
well. 

"  In  both  these  great  men,  the  enthusiastic  element  which 


COMPAKED    WITH    CROMWELL.  45 

clearly  existed  in  them,  did  but  inspire  a  resistless  energy  into 
their  actions,  while  it  in  no  way  interfered  with  the  calmest  and 
keenest  judgment  in  the  choice  of  their  means ;  nor  in  the  case 
of  Scipio  did  it  suggest  any  other  ends  of  Ufe  than  such  as  were 
appreciated  by  ordinary  human  views  of  good.  When  religion 
contained  no  revelation  of  new  truth,  it  naturally  left  men's  esti- 
mate of  the  end  of  their  being  exactly  what  it  had  been  before, 
and  only  furnished  encouragement  to  the  pursuit  of  it.  It  so  far 
bore  the  character  of  magic,  that  it  appUed  superhuman  power 
to  the  furtherance  of  human  purposes ;  the  gods  aided  man's 
work ;  they  did  not  teach  him  and  enable  him  to  do  theirs. 

"  The  charge  of  early  dissoluteness  brought  against  Scipio  by 
his  enemies  is  likely  to  have  been  exaggerated,  Hke  the  stories  of 
our  Heniy  V.,"  and  he  might  have  added,  as  a  case  more  in 
point,  our  Cromwell — "  yet  the  sternest  and  firmest  manhood 
has  sometimes  followed  a  youth  marked  with  many  excesses  of 
passion ;  and  what  was  considered  as  unbecoming  interruption  to 
the  cares  of  public  business,  was  held  to  be  in  itself  nothing 
blameable.  That  sanction  of  inherited  custom,  which  at  Rome 
was,  at  this  period,  the  best  safe-guard  of  youthful  purity,  Scipio 
was  not  inclined  implicitly  to  regard. 

"With  all  his  greatness  there  was  a  waywardness  in  him 
which  seems  often  to  accompany  genius  ;  a  self-idolatry,  natural 
enough  \^ilere  there  is  so  keen  a  consciousness  of  power  and  of 
lofty  designs ;  a  self-dependence,  which  feels  even  the  most 
sacred  external  relations  to  be  unessential  to  its  own  perfection. 
Such  is  the  Achilles  of  Homer,  the  highest  conception  of  the  in- 
dividual hero,  relying  on  himself,  and  sufficient  to  himself.  But 
the  same  poet  who  conceived  the  character  of  Achilles,  has  also 
drawn  that  of  Hector ;  of  the  truly  noble,  because  unselfish  hero, 
who  subdues  liis  genius  to  make  it  minister  to  the  good  of 
others ;  who  lives  for  his  relations,  his  friends,  and  his  country. 
And  as  Scipio  lived  in  himself  and  for  himself,  so  the  virtue  of 


46  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

Hector  was  worthily  represented  in  the  hfe  of  his  great  rival 
Hannibal,  who,  from  his  childhood  to  his  latest  hour,  through 
glory  and  through  obloquy,  amid  victories  and  amid  disappoint- 
ments, ever  remembered  to  what  purpose  his  father  had  devoted 
him,  and  withdrew  no  thought,  or  desire,  or  deed,  from  their 
pledged  service  to  his  country." 

This  is  amazingly  fine  writing ;  nor  is  it  deniable  that  the 
writer,  if  his  view  of  Scipio's  character  be  correct  in  the  first  in- 
stance, had,  in  a  great  sense,  the  key  to  his  mystery.  I  cannot 
deny,  much  less  controvert,  the  truth  of  that  view ;  for  it  is 
evident  that  we  lack  sufficient  data,  as  to  his  private  and  indivi- 
dual life,  whereby  to  arrive  at  any  positive  conclusion.  So  that, 
to  all  time,  he  must  probably  remain  a  mystery.  And  yet  I 
would  fain  indicate  two  or  three  salient  points  of  difference  be- 
tween the  characters  of  Scipio,  Mahomet,  Joan  of  Arc,  and 
Cromwell,  all  of  whom  in  some  sort  put  forward  the  same  pre- 
tensions ;  which  differences,  it  appeal's  to  me,  until  they  can  be 
reconciled,  must  prevent  us  from  assigning  to  him  the  same 
imaginative  or  superstitious  temperament,  the  same  fanatical,  en- 
thusiastic sincerity  of  belief  and  purpose,  which  we  may  ascribe 
to  the  others. 

The  extreme  paucity  of  extant  authorities,  the  very  doubtful 
character  of  these  as  to  veracity  and  judgment,  and  the  extreme 
meagreness  of  the  skeleton-like  historical  abstracts,  which  alone 
they  have  left  to  us,  render  it  in  the  highest  degree  difficult  to 
attain  anything  like  a  correct  knowledge  of  the  individual 
habits  and  private  lives  of  the  great  men  of  this  period  ;  and 
of  none  perhaps  more  so  than  of  Scipio,  the  elder  Africanus. 

We  have,  in  fact,  no  method  of  learning  their  character, 
except  by  a  close  consideration  of  their  authenticated  actions,  and 
a  laborious  scrutiny  into  the  circumstances  and  motives  of  those 
actions.  Now  it  is  palpably  true,  that  the  greatest  recorded 
actions  of  these  greatest  men  are  not  so  well  authenticated,  that 


WAS    HE    A    HERO  ?  47 

we  can  receive  them  as  facts  on  the  bare  statement  of  any  one 
or  more  author  or  authoi-s,  of  that  day.  On  the  contrary,  we 
must  apply  the  test  of  analysis,  we  must  examine  whether  the 
subsequent  known  events  are  such  as  would  consequentially 
follow  the  doubtful  events  stated  to  have  preceded  them ;  we 
must  count  times  and  measure  distances  ;  and  not  till  we  have 
satisfied  ourselves  that  what  is  stated  to  have  happened  is  both 
physically  and  morally  possible,  that  it  is  consistent  with  what 
went  before  and  followed  it,  and  with  the  characters  of  the 
persons  concerned,  may  we  venture  to  accept  it  as  the  truth. 

Now  it  appeal's  to  me,  that  Dr.  Arnold  has  founded  his  argu- 
ment concerning  the  sincerity  of  Scipio's  conviction  in  his  own 
sanctity  and  inspiration,  or  second-sight,  on  two  presumptions  ; 
neither  of  which  is  sustained  by  history,  nor  in  my  opinion  borne 
out  by  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  as  compared  with  those  of 
Cromwell  or  the  other  persons  named. 

These  assumptions  are  :  first,  that  he  was  a  hero,  in  the  truest 
and  highest  sense  of  the  word — not  taken  merely  as  a  strong 
and  brave  fighting  man  ;  and,  second,  that  he  was  an  enthu- 
siast. Granted  that  he  was  hero  and  enthusiast,  and  it  follows 
that  he  was  not  hypocrite. 

That  Cromwell  was  thoroughly  an  enthusiast,  and  from  his 
very  boyhood  of  the  most  gloomily,  perhaps  morbidly,  imagina- 
tive character,  no  one  can  have  carefully  studied  his  life  without 
discovering.  The  story,  well-known  to  all  of  his  contemporaries, 
years  before  he  seemed  likely  to  attain  any  eminence,  of  the 
Shape  which  drew  his  bed-curtains  at  midnight,  telHng  him  that 
he  should  be  the  "  Greatest  man  in  England,  but  not  King ;" 
the  very  inconsistencies  of  his  conduct,  especially  at  the  signing 
of  the  king's  death-warrant ;  and,  most  of  all,  that  extraordinary 
prayer  uttered  by  him  on  his  death-bed,  when  he  thought  no 
human  ear  was  listening,  prove  this  beyond  a  peradventure. 

Wise,  prudent,  crafty,  shrewd,  as  all  his  enterprises  and   all 


48  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

Lis  successes  show  him  to  have  been  ;  yet  it  would  not,  I  think, 
be  difficult  to  show  that  all  his  actions  were  impulsive,  and 
almost  all  his  great  successes  achieved  by  giving  the  full  swing 
and  sweep  to  his  genuine  impulses. 

In  some  sort,  too,  he  was  a  hero — probably  felt  himself  to  be 
one  altogether.  Surely,  there  must  have  been  a  strong  element 
of  the  heroical  in  that  man,  who,  finding  his  country  the  very 
lowest  in  the  scale  of  European  nations,  boasted  that  he  would 
make  the  name  of  Englishman  as  safe  a  passport  as  ever  was 
the  name  of  Roman  citizen,  the  world  over — nor  so  boasted  vainly ; 
in  that  Protestant,  who,  when  Rome,  France,  Austria,  Spain,  the 
world,  Holland  excepted,  were  banded  to  suppress  the  faith  of 
Calvin  and  of  Luther,  made  cease  the  persecutions  of  the  saints, 
as  he  termed  them,  by  one  brief  threat,  that,  if  another  drop  of 
Christian  blood  were  shed  for  religion's  sake,  "  the  English  guns 
should  wake  an  echo  in  the  Vatican." 

That  Mahomet  was  an  enthusiast,  a  zealot,  imaginative  to  the 
very  verge  of  inspiration,  if  his  entire  career,  which  without  con- 
viction he  never  could  have  run  ;  if  that  almost  miraculous  work, 
the  Koran,  of  his  composition  do  not  prove ;  at  least  the  history 
of  the  religion  which  he  founded,  and  from  which,  I  believe, 
there  has  never  been  an  honest  convert,  proves  it  beyond  all 
argument. 

That  Joan  of  Arc  was  an  enthusiast,  witness  the  almost  mad- 
ness of  her  military  successes,  of  her  military  errors — such  as  the 
wild  and  fruitless  march  to  Rheims,  through  the  very  centre  of 
an  enemy's  country,  with  no  object  beyond  an  empty  pageant — 
witness,  above  all,  her  unchanged  constancy  and  most  heroic 
martyrdom. 

"Who  believes  that  these  were  vulgar  impostors,  that  such 
things  as  they  accomplished  through  the  very  spirit  which  is 
termed  imposture,  could  be  accomplished  by  impostore,  must  be 


COMPARED    WITH    MAHOMET    AND    CROMWELL  49 

themselves  so  narrow  and  so  vulgar-minded,  that  what  they 
believe,  or  not  believe,  can  concern  no  one. 

All  these  three  lived,  too,  more  or  less  in  transition  periods, 
when  religious  questions  were  disturbing  and  perplexing  the 
minds  of  the  whole  world,  and  actually  driving  the  weaker 
spirits  into  insanity  and  blasphemy. 

Mahomet,  the  originator  and  inventor  of  a  new  system  of 
religion,  and  himself  its  prophet. 

Cromwell,  the  propagandist  and  enforcer  of  a  new  code  of 
morality  and  church  discipline,  the  asserter  of  the  right  of  self- 
government  and  self-responsibility,  and  himself  its  champion. 

Joan  of  Arc,  the  ordained  instrument  of  her  country's  salva- 
tion, the  one  supernaturally  instructed  of  the  will  of  Heaven,  and 
herself  Heaven's  minister  unto  freedom. 

But  of  this,  or  similar  to  this,  I  can  find  nothing  written  in  the 
annals  of  the  day,  as  pertaining  to  the  character  of  Scipio,  to 
the  nature  of  the  circumstances,  to  the  genius  of  the  times. 

In  no  act  of  Scipio's  life,  except  the  gratuitous  assertion  that 
he  saw  visions,  and  dreamed  dreams,  can  I  detect  a  single 
feature  of  the  enthusiast,  of  the  impulsive  man,  the  imaginative 
man,  the  poet,  the  visionary,  or  the  dreamer. 

Nowhere,  from  beneath  the  heterogeneous  costume  which  he 
affected  to  wear,  half  warrior's  sagum,  half  stoic's  blanket,  can  I 
espy  one  limb  or  lineament  of  the  true  hero. 

Nowhere  do  I  see  inconsistency,  nowhere  perplexity  of  mind, 
nowhere  fits  of  gloom  and  despondency,  like  those  of  Saul  and 
of  Cromwell ;  nowhere  do  I  see  gleams  of  almost  supernatural 
vividness  and  splendor. 

Far  fi'om  it :  I  see  an  equable,  self-consistent,  self-confident, 

self-righteous   man — a   great,    calm,    steady,    unmoved  soldier, 

reasoning   sagaciously,    divining    profoundly,    judging    almost 

unerringly,  and  acting  rapidly,  strenuously,  energetically,  tho- 

3 


50  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

roughly — but  not  in  the  least  degree  impulsively  or  energeti- 
cally— that  which  he  had  determined  to  act  out. 

His  intellect  appears  to  me  to  have  been  entirely  rational, 
logical,  intellectual — not  in  the  least  sensuous,  ideal,  or 
imaginative. 

His  temperament,  I  think,  was  cold,  unimpassioned,  unex- 
citable,  and  solid.  Nor  this,  the  less  on  account  of  his  imputed 
irregularities  of  life  and  early  orgies,  whether  real  or  pretended 
— although  indeed  I  lay  but  httle  stress  on  them  at  all,  as  un- 
confirmed by  credible  authorities — for  the  nature  of  man  is  far 
too  well  know^n  at  present,  that  we  should  doubt  the  existence 
of  cold-blooded  and  unimpassioned  sensualists  and  volup- 
tuai'ies. 

Nor  do  I  perceive  anything  in  the  nature  of  the  times  to 
produce  such  a  frame  or  constitution  of  mind  as  Dr.  Arnold  has 
attributed  to  Scipio.  That  age  was  an  acting,  not  a  thinking 
age.  Neither  religious  nor  philosophical  questions ;  no,  nor  as 
yet  even  political  questions  in  the  abstract ;  had  hitherto  much 
begun  to  distract  the  minds  of  men.  The  old  religion  of  Rome 
still  prevailed,  still  reigned  paramount  in.  the  minds  of  the 
many,  and  in  the  minds  of  the  vulgar.  Within  a  year  or  two 
of  this  very  date,  four  human  victims  had  been  entombed  alive 
in  a  vault  beneath  the  forum ;  and  scarce  an  election  passed,  or 
had  passed  for  two  centuries,  in  which  some  religious  juggle — 
which,  had  strong-minded  men  beheved  in  that  religion,  would 
have  been  most  irrehgious  blasphemy — was  not  practised  by 
one  party  or  other,  but  especially  by  that  of  the  nobles,  Scipio's 
own  party,  to  whom  by  right  belonged  the  sacred  things  and  the 
sacred  laws  of  Rome. 

I  conceive,  therefore,  that  it  may  be  taken  almost  for  granted, 
that  among  the  upper  class  of  Romans,  not  excluding  even  the 
ministers  of  religion,  there  was,  so  early  as  this  period,  no  dis- 
tinct religious  behef,  nothing  of  genuine  and   lively  faith  in  the 


ROMAN    SCEPTICISM.  5l 

personifications,  characteristics,  or  authenticity  of  the  numerous 
deities  of  their  mystical  and  poetical  polytheism.  This  infi- 
delity had  not  undoubtedly  yet  become  so  widely  difiused  as 
at  a  later  date,  when  senatoi-s  and  men  of  the  highest  rank 
openly  disavowed  their  belief  in  the  monstrous  and  incredible 
fictions  of  paganism,  beneath  the  very  roofs  of  the  temples  in 
which  their  councils  were  convened ;  but  still  so  utterly  incon- 
sistent with  common  sense  were  the  legends  concerning  the 
gods,  so  utterly  at  variance  with  all  natural  principles  of  virtue, 
piety,  and  morality,  that  it  is  hardly  conceivable  that  any  man 
possessed  of  ordinary  reasoning  powei's,  much  more  of  high  and 
enlightened  intellect,  could  hold  them  in  anything  but  absolute 
contempt.  Accordingly  as  men  were  constituted,  therefore,  they 
would  naturally  fall  into  one  or  other  form  of  schism  and  dis- 
belief; those  who  were  born  with  reverential  and  religious  ten- 
dencies, would  have  recoui-se,  as  Plato,  Cicero,  Socrates,  Lucan, 
and  others  of  the  best  and  wisest  Greeks  and  Romans,  to  a  pure 
Deism,  or  faith  in  one  self-existent,  omnipresent,  and  all  over- 
ruling principle  and  power,  whether  they  called  it  God,  or  Spiri^ 
of  the  World,  or  First  Great  Cause,  or  Soul  of  Nature  ;  while 
those  of  lower  intellects  and  more  debased  temperaments  would 
blindly  rush  into  the  abyss  of  atheism,  or  wallow  in  the  sty  of 
Epicurus.  By  neither  of  these  classes,  however,  is  it  probable 
that  the  ancient  polytheism  was  openly  assailed  or  denied ;  as 
the  former  portion  conceiving  the  Spirit  of  Deity  to  be  ubiqui- 
tous and  existent  more  or  less  in  everything,  from  stocks  and 
stones  through  all  animate  nature  up  to  the  azure  vault  of 
heaven  and  the  everlasting  stai-s,  would  see  no  desirable  result 
to  be  attained  in  demolishing  the  ignorant  creed  of  the  many, 
not  caring  to  propagate  their  own  among  the  masses,  to  whom 
it  would  be  unintelligible  from  its  immateriality.  While  both 
classes  would  regard  the  pompous,  sensuous  ceremonials  and 
processions,  so  fascinating  to  vulgar  minds,  as  an  admirable  sys- 


52  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO.. 

tern  for  the  continued  government  and  subjugation  of  the 
people  to  their  own  caste ;  since  the  nobles  were,  ex  officio^  the 
pontiffs  and  priests  of  Rome. 

Lastly,  we  find  Polybius,  who  was  born  in  the  year  succeed- 
ing the  elder  Scipio's  crowning  victory  at  Zama,  who  was  the 
contemporary  and  friend  of  his  heutenant,  Lailius,  and  the  tent- 
companion  of  his  grandson,  the  younger  Africanus,  as  Arnold 
terms  him  '*  by  temper  and  circumstances  a  rationalist" 
evidently  disbeheving  the  very  existence  of  the  gods,  and 
holding  it  incredible  and  absurd  that  Scipio  could  have  believed 
those  gods,  whom  he  professed  to  woi-ship  and  consult,  to  be 
anything  beyond  creations  of  the  human  fancy.  Now  if  Poly- 
bius attained  this  stage  of  disbelief  within  some  thirty  years  at 
farthest  from  Scipio's  own  day,  no  change  having  occurred  in 
the  condition  of  religious  worship,  or  in  the  state  of  religious 
belief  and  feehng  among  the  masses,  it  is  no  argument  to  say 
that  Scipio  could  not  possibly  have  arrived  at  the  same  stage, 
because  Sylla,  Caesar,  Catiline,  and  other  Epicurean  atheists,  did 
not  carry  out  their  scepticism  and  moral  debasement  to  the 
lowest  depth,  until  another  century  had  passed. 

And  for  many  reasons,  it  appeal's  to  me  more  probable  and 
consistent  with  the  spirit  of  his  times,  and,  so  far  as  known,  the 
temper  of  the  man,  that  fully  believing  in  the  existence  of 
some  powerful  and  overruling  influence  or  essence  somewhere, 
but  utterly  incredulous  as  to  the  myths  which  it  is  difficult  to 
convince  oneself  that  any  reasonable  man  ever  did  believe,  of 
Jupiter,  Apollo,  and  the  rest  of  their  compeei*s,  Scipio  made  use 
of  the  machinery  still  believed  by  the  vulgar  and  superstitious, 
to  work  out  his  own  end,  and  to  control  and  guide  the  masses 
to  their  own  good. 

Such  pious  frauds — as  they  are  impiously  termed — have  been 
resorted  to  with  effect  by  demagogues  and  ambitious  rulers  of 
all  times  and  all  religions  ;  and  by  many,  I  doubt  not,  with  a 


NOT    A    SINCERE    RELIGIONIST.  53 

sincere  sense  that  they  were  justifiable  and  even  virtuous  methods 
of  bringing  about  justifiable  and  desirable  ends. 

Wherefore,  contrary  to  Dr.  Arnold's  opinion,  I  must  hold  it 
less  probable  that  a  man  of  Scipio's  cool,  phlegmatic,  cautious 
temperament,  and  clear  high  intellect,  should  have  believed 
fables  so  absurd  and  childish,  than  that  he  should  have  laid  hold 
of  the  supei*stitions  of  the  weak  and  credulous  yet  well  intentioned 
masses,  in  order  to  conduct  them  by  those  means  to  victory,  in- 
dependence and  glory. 

Be  this,  however,  as  it  may,  in  regard  to  his  character  theoreti- 
cally, or  to  the  alleged  exploits  of  his  early  life,  we  come  to  his 
actual  historical  career  in  the  end  of  the  year  545  of  the  city 
of  Rome,  or  B.  C.  21 Y.  In  this  year  the  Roman  people  being 
somewhat  relieved  fi*om  their  instant  terrors  by  the  fall  of  Capua, 
resolved  to  send  large  reinforcements  into  Spain ;  and  called  a 
general  assembly  for  the  election  of  a  proconsul  and  propraetor 
for  its  prosecution. 

Now,  for  the  well  understanding  of  what  follows,  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind,  that  the  office  of  Proconsul  conferred  the  second 
miUtary  rank  in  the  Roman  armies,  and  was  usually  held  by 
men  who  had  previously  occupied  the  Consular  office  itself,  after 
their  term  had  expired,  as  was  the  case  of  Publius  Scipio,  our 
hero's  father. 

To  confer  it,  therefore,  on  one  who  had  not  gone  through  the 
regular  grades,  or  attained  the  just  age  for  holding  it,  was  so 
unusual,  that  the  historians  who  related  the  facts,  have  endea- 
vored to  account  for  it,  by  framing  the  most  absurd  and  unten- 
able fictions. 

By  all,  however,  it  is  admitted  that  at  these  comitia,  the  high 
elective  assemblage  of  the  people,  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio,  cer- 
tainly not  being  above  twenty-seven,  but  according  to  general 
report  only   twenty-four,   offered    himself    candidate    for    this 


g4  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

elevated  station,  to  which  neither  his  yeai-s,  nor  his  previous 
offices,  in  the  least  degree  entitled  him. 

In  the  course  of  his  canvassing  he  declared  himself  to  be  not 
only  the  natural  and  kindred  avenger  of  his  father  and  his  uncle, 
but  the  heaven-raised  champion  and  restorer  of  Rome's  great- 
ness. Nor  did  he  content  himself  with  proclaiming  to  the 
people,  that  he  was  the  destined  conqueror  of  Spain  alone,  but 
of  Libya  and  Carthage  likewise.* 

Whereat  so  greatly  were  the  people  moved — for  he  spoke  elo- 
quently, and  with  vehement  enthusiasm,  so  that  he  seemed  even 
as  one  inspired,  and  moreover  no  one  offered  himself  as  a  rival 
candidate — that  they  forthwith  elected  him  by  an  unanimous 
vote,  not  of  the  centuries  only,  but  of  the  individual  votei-s. 

The  fact  that  he  had  no  rival  candidate  is  undoubted ;  that 
he  was  unanimously  chosen  of  the  centuries  may  be  granted; 
that  he  was  so  chosen  of  the  individual  voices  must  be  untrue. 
But  the  very  tale  proves  how  generally  he  was  accepted  by  all 
classes  as  the  fittest,  and  only  fit,  man  for  the  prosecution  of  the 
war  in  Spain. 

That  he  would  have  had  rival  candidates  in  abundance,  had 
he  not  been  so  esteemed  by  the  Senate  and  its  wisest  membei*s, 
is  directly  proved  by  the  fact  of  their  refusal  to  receive  the  votes 
in  favor  of  worthy  men,  who  were  not  proved  generals,  on  two 
occasions  even  at  Consular  elections,  through  Fabius  Maximus 
and  Titus  Manlius,  the  latter  in  this  very  year ;  and  is  strongly 
confirmed  by  the  appointment  of  the  very  Nero,  whose  command 
he  superseded  in  Spain,  to  be  consul  in  the  year  next  succeeding 
his  return.f 

The  unanimity  of  the  centuries  in  his  fa^'or  as  clearly  dis- 
proves the  statements  that  his  pretensions  were  ridiculed,  his 
quahfications  doubted,   and  himself  derided   as   a  vain,  boyish 

*  Appian  VI.  18.     Livy  XXVI.  20       f  Appian.   Livy,  ut  supra. 


ELECTED    PROCONSUL.  ^^ 

braggai-t,  by  the  elders  and  leading  men  of  the  city ;  for  there 
was  an  actual  majority  of  centuries  under  the  direct  control  of 
these  very  elders  and  leading  men.  To  render  this,  if  needfuh 
more  obvious,  Livy  states  that  he  was  unanimously  chosen  in  the 
fii-st  instance,  but  that  the  elders  immediately  repented,  until  he 
had  cheered  them  by  a  second  speech  of  such  art  as  "  to 
rekindle  an  excitement  greater  than  that  which  had  subsided* 
and  to  till  all  men  with  a  hope  more  certain,  than  any  which 
trust  in  the  promises  of  humanity,  or  reasoning  on  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case,  could  justify."  Now  it  was  never,  at  any 
time,  the  character  of  the  Roman  aristocracy — the  steadiest, 
most  obstinate,  most  enduring  of  all  aristocracies — and  at  no 
time  less  than  this — to  hesitate,  to  waver,  to  change,  or  to 
repent.  At  no  time,  within  a  century  previous  to  this  date,  did 
they  attach  any  very  serious  fiiith  even  to  the  established  canons 
of  their  religion,  though  they  used  them  to  command  othei*s, 
when  it  suited  their  purpose  so  to  do ;  much  less  would  they  now 
be  hke  to  trust  to  the  assumed  personal  sanctity  of  a  young  man, 
wholly  unconnected  with  their  priesthood,  and  nearly  new  to 
the  affairs  of  state. 

Forty  yeai-s  before  this  time  Publius  Claudius,  then  Consul, 
and  as  such  priest,  being  in  command  of  the  fleet  off  Drepanum  in 
Sicily  and  desiring  to  engage,  was  told  by  the  Augurs  that  he 
must  on  no  account  do  so,  "  because  the  sacred  chickens  would 
not  eat."  "  Let  them  drink  then,"  exclaimed  the  Consul,  threw 
the  sacred  chickens  ovei'board,  engaged,  and  got  terribly 
defeated. 

Him  the  Senate  severely  reprimanded,  and  never  entirely  for- 
gave ;  not  because  any  of  them  believed  in  the  sacred  chickens 
one  iota  more  than  Appius  Claudius  ;  but  because  he  dispirited 
the  minds  of  the  superstitious  soldiers  on  the  eve  of  battle  ;  and 
might  easily  have  brought  discredit  on  that  excellent  patrician 


56  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

••eligion,  which  was  so  capital  an  instrument  for  managing  the 
ignorant  plebeians. 

If  Appius  Claudius  had  led  Adherbal  in  triumph  home  to 
Rome,  he  would  no  more  have  been  punished  for  drowning  the 
sacred  chickens,  than  was  Sir  Horatio  Nelson  for  not  seeing  Sir 
Hyde  Parker's  signal  through  a  glass  applied  to  his  blind  eye  at 
Copenhagen. 

The  defeat  in  the  one  case  caused  the  punishment ;  the  suc- 
cess in  the  other  the  impunity.  In  neither  instance  was  the  act, 
in  both  were  the  consequences  regarded.  Such  is  the  way  of 
men  and  nations. 

Unquestionably,  the  elders  of  Rome  did  laugh  in  their 
sleeves  at  the  creduhty  of  the  people,  at  the  cleverness  of  their 
own  man,  at  the  success  of  their  own  machinery. 

But  they  were  far  too  clever  to  laugh  openly  ;  or  if  they  did 
laugh,  it  was  with  that  rare  art  which  conceals  art,  in  order  to 
dissemble  their  collusion  with  one,  in  fact  their  own,  but  osten- 
sibly the  people's,  candidate ;  and  to  enable  him  to  carry  his 
dissimulation,  or  his  fanaticism,  whichever  it  might  be,  yet  far- 
ther, since  they  had  already  found  it  so  useful,  and  expected  to 
find  it  yet  more  so  thereafter.  And  this  I,  in  truth,  consider 
the  probable  history  of  this  unconstitutional  and  strange  elec- 
tion, not,  however,  as  settling  one  way  or  other  the  question  of 
Scipio's  personal  hypocrisy  or  fanaticism,  but  as  accounting  for 
the  conduct  of  the  magnates  on  the  occasion. 

They  had  already,  certainly  wisely,  but  as  certainly  unconsti- 
tutionally, refused  to  receive  votes  in  favor  of  T.  M.  Otacilius, 
and  forced  two  consuls  of  their  own  choosing  on  the  centuries, 
and  naturally  would  shun  directly  interfering  with  the  people's 
choice  of  a  proconsul  for  Spain  also. 

I  cannot  say  that  they  did  this — though  it  very  nearly  resem- 
bles their  course  gn  many  other  occasions — but  I  do  say,  if  they 
did  not  desire  to  risk  a  struggle  for  power  with  the  people,  there 


CAUSE    AND    MANNER    OF    HIS    ELECTION.  57 

was  no  better  method  of  retaining  it  without  a  struggle,  than 
to  set  up  their  own  man — personally  unknown  to  be  such,  while 
known  to  themselves  as  possessing  rare  arts  of  foscination — as 
the  popular  candidate ;  to  hold  back  all  nval  candidates  against 
him  ;  to  oppose  him  just  so  far  as  to  conceal  all  collusion,  bring- 
ing out  all  his  art  and  eloquence,  and  then  to  affect  contentment, 
and  concession  to  the  popular  voice.  He  was  elected,  at  all 
events,  if  not  unanimously,  by  an  overwhelming  majority ;  Mar- 
cus Junius  Silanus  was  chosen  his  propraetor;  and  the  two  gen- 
erals set  sail  almost  immediately  for  the  city  of  Tarraco,  now 
Tarragona,  and  famed  in  the  yet  bloodier  and  more  eventful 
annals  of  the  modern  Peninsular  War.  It  was  at  that  time  the 
headquarters  of  the  Roman  forces,  and  the  capital  of  all  the 
land  they  occupied  in  Spain,  the  narrow  strip,  namely,  situate 
between  the  Pyrenees  and  the  Iberus,  or  Ebro. 

They  took  with  them,*  in  thirty  ships  of  war,  all  quinque- 
remes,  the  line-of-battle-ships  of  that  day,|  ten  thousand  legionary 
foot  and  one  thousand  horse,  all  incomparable  veterans,  tempered 
in  the  fires  of  that  fierce  war-furnace  which  had  "  tried  men's 
souls,"  now  for  so  many  years,  in  the  heart  of  Italy.  These 
men  had  stood  face  to  face  with  Hannibal  himself,  and  having 
come.oflf  unscathed  and  without  dishonor,  were  little  like  to  flinch 
from  any  weaker  advereary.  With  arms,  with  military  chest, 
clothing  and  provisions,  they  were  so  well  furnished  as  Rome's 
exigencies  would  permit ;  and  on  their  landing  at  Tari-agona, 
they  found  eighteen  thousand  capital  infantry  and  fifteen  hun- 
dred veteran  cavalry.  Many  of  these  had  fought  under  Scipio's 
father  and  his  uncle,  and  now  rapturously  hailed  his  arrival ; 
some  of  them,  the  troops  brought  over  by  IN'ero,  had  assisted 
at  the  first  reverse  of  Hannibal,  and  taken  Capua  under  his  very 
eyes ;  all  of  them  had,  for  the  last  two  years,  held  their  ground 
defiantly  against  Mago  and  the  two  Hasdrubals.     These  were 

*  Appian,XVI.6.  t  Livy  XXVI.  20 

3* 


68  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

men  vei-sed  in  Iberian  warfare,  who  had  learned  to  dread  neither 
Spanish  foot  nor  Numidian  horse,  neither  Punic  skill  nor  Bar- 
barian force  ;  men  who  had  need  to  dread  no  equal  force  on 
the  face  of  earth,  when  under  equal  leaders.  And  now  they 
had  a  leader  second  to  none  but  Hannibal,  the  greatest  of  all 


And  Scipio,  scarcely  as  yet  beyond  the  gristle  of  his  earliest 
manhood,  was  surely  in  a  proud  and  high  position  ;  for  even  at 
this  present  day,  a  general,  with  an  independent  command 
of  thirty  thousand  superb  veterans,  of  whom  two  thousand 
were  tried  horse,  and  thirty  line-of-battle-ships  to  back  him, 
would  hardly  care  to  change  places  with  the  most  favored  of 
mankind. 

When  we  consider,  that  his  land  forces,  alone,  were  superior, 
as  ten  to  one,  to  those  with  which  Clive*  dethroned  Surajee 
Dowlah,  and  laid  the  foundations  of  an  empire  larger  than  the 
civilized  world  of  those  days ;  as  four  to  one,  to  that  with  which 
Lake  and  Wellesleyf  secured  its  superstructure — When  we 
consider  that  they  nearly  equalled  in  numbei*s,  and  infinitely 
excelled  in  every  other  particular,  that  army  with  which  the 
young  Bonaparte  J — not  as  yet  Napoleon,  but  how  much  greater — 

=*  Clive  took  the  camp  of  Surajee  Dowlah,  and  subsequently  de- 
throned hinti,  with  2,900  men,  of  whom  900  only  were  Europeans,  and 
six  guns,  against  58,000  horse  and  foot  with  50  guns — Alison  III.  126. 

t  Wellesley  won  the  battle  of  Assaye,  with  8,000  men,  of  whom 
1500  only  were  Europeans,  against  50,000  men  and  100  guns  ;  Lake 
stormed  Delhi,  and  won  Laswaree,  with  5,000  soldiers. — Alison  III.  156. 

X  The  army  of  Italy,  when  Bonaparte  took  command  of  it  nearly  at 
Scipio's  age,  was  forty-two  thousand  strong,  but  had  no  magazines,  no 
rations,  pay,  shoes,  clothing,  tents,  nor  shelter.  Yet  with  this  material 
he  fought  four  pitched  battles  all  triumphantly,  and  conquered  the  whole 
of  Northern  Italy,  including  the  Eternal  City,  remaining  master  of  all 
from  the  Tyrol  to  the  Tiber,  in  one  magnificent  campaign  of  a  few 
months'  duration. — Alison  I.  397.  et  seq. 


HIS    FORCES    AND    ABILITIES.  59 

beat  down  the  arms  of  Austria,  conquering  all  Northern  Italy, 
and  Scipio's  Eorae  herself,  in  one  miraculous  campaign — we  shall 
be  perhaps  better  able  to  estimate  the  greatness  and  brilliancy 
of  his  position,  than  by  any  opinion  drawn  from  a  dry  estimate 
of  numbei*s. 

Nor  if  his  position  was  brilliant  and  commanding,  were  his 
own  abilities  less  commanding,  his  own  career  less  brilliant. 

He  is  perhaps  the  only  commander  on  record,  in  no  one  of 
whose  campaigns  can  we  discover  any  error  of  judgment,  any 
failure  of  execution.  Nor  can  it  be  said  of  him,  with  truth, 
that  he  conquered  by  caution  only ;  for  he  knew,  as  well  as  any, 
how  at  times  the  most  desperate  daring  is  the  most  real  pru- 
dence. On  him,  as  on  the  general  of  modern  times  whom  he 
most  resembles  in  his  military  career — as  he  resembles  him  the 
least  in  his  moral  character — caution  was  imposed  as  a  necessity 
by  the  circumstances  of  the  war  they  were  waging,  of  the  country 
in  which  they  were  waging  it,  and  in  the  character  or  condition 
of  the  governments  they  served  ;  I  mean  of  coui*se  the  Duke  of 
Wellington. 

Both  warred  in  the  same  country,  Spain,  although  for  the 
most  part  their  operations  were  on  the  different  sides  of  the 
peninsula ;  both  were  opposed  to  the  ablest  marshals  or  lieu- 
tenants of  the  gi'eatest  genei-al  then  existing ;  both  were  sur- 
rounded by  allies,  on  whose  faith  and  fii-mness  in  the  field  no 
reliance  could  be  placed  ;  both  were  compelled  to  rely  on  their 
ships  as  a  basis  of  their  operations. 

Each  knew  that  the  existence  of  the  war  depended  on  the 
preservation  of  the  army  he  then  led  ;  since,  that  lost,  his 
country  could  by  no  possibility  send  out  another.  Each,  after 
every  blow  he  struck,  was  cramped  in  his  future  movements  by 
want  of  supplies  and  reinforcements,  wants  of  cordial  co-opera- 
tion or  energetical  support  from  home ;  the  one,  owing  to  the 
jealoiisy  and  parsimony  of  the  democratic  branch  of  the  govern- 


CO  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

ment,  ever  adverse  to  the  ^var,  in  England  ;  the  other  in  conse- 
quence of  the  absokite  inability  of  Rome,  bleeding  at  every  pore 
under  the  puissant  blows  of  Hannibal,  to  spare  a  single  soldier 
from  the  war  that  was  raging  in  her  vitals. 

Each,  after  his  best  fought  actions,  his  most  brilliant  exploits, 
was  more  than  once  compelled  to  retreat  before  a  beaten  enemy. 
Each,  ever  vastly  inferior  to  the  combined  forces  of  his  adver- 
sary, contrived  always,  partly  owing  to  the  inferior  skill  of  the 
generals  oppqged  to  him,  partly  to  their  mutual  jealousies  and 
dissensions,  ever  to  be  equal,  at  least,  at  the  actual  delivery  of 
battle. 

Each,  cautious  as  to  the  general  plan  of  his  campaigns,  not 
of  choice  but  of  necessity,  dealt  some  of  the  most  daring  blows, 
and  the  rashest,  had  not  the  success  justified  the  daring,  that 
have  been  ever  dealt  by  an  inferior  in  face  of  a  superior  army. 

Each  succeeded  at  the  last,  the  one  by  disciplining  and  con- 
verting into  soldiei-s,  the  other  by  bringing  over  to  his  banners, 
the  unsteady  or  faithless  natives,  in  sweeping  every  vestige  of 
the  enemy  from  the  confines  of  the  land  on  which  at  fii-st  he  had 
scarce  a  foothold. 

Neither  was  ever  conquered  in  a  pitched  battle,  nor  ever 
committed  any  material  military  error ;  and  both,  to  complete 
this  extraordinary  parallel,  after  beating  every  lieutenant  of  their 
country's  gigantic  enemy,  terminated  the  war  and  ended  the 
career  of  that  enemy  with  a  thunderbolt  on  the  confines,  or  in 
the  heart,  of  his  native  land. 

Never  was  there  a  parallel  more  singularly  close  and  well-de- 
fined, unless  it  be  that  between  their  colossal  adversaries,  the 
masters  of  all  strategy  of  all  ages,  Hannibal  and  Napoleon*  the 
gi*eat. 

As  we  proceed  with  the  narrative  of  the  five  campaigns  of 
Scipio,  we  shall  perceive  more  clearly  how  similar  was  the  con- 

*  See  "  Captains  of  the  Old  World,"— art.  Hannibal,  for  this  parallel. 


COMPARED    TO    WELLINGTON.  61 

duct  of  these  two  great  men  under  similar  circumstances; 
and  with  what  equal  steps,  equal  fortune  followed  on  equal 
conduct. 

Nor  will  it  be  incurious  to  observe  how,  his  wars  ended,  either 
general  was  met  at  home,  after  his  return,  by  the  basest  injus- 
tice and  ingratitude ;  and  how  by  his  tranquil  fortitude  and 
undeviating  obedience  to  duty  the  one  disarmed  his  enemies, 
and  lived  to  fill  at  home  the  highest  offices  of  state,  to  win  the 
deepest  love  of  all  classes ;  while  the  other  by  his  petulance,  his 
insolent  defiance  of  the  legal  tribunals,  and  his  intolerable  arro- 
gance, estranged  his  very  nearest  friends,  and  died  self-exiled 
among  the  shades  of  Li  tern  um  ;  not,  in  my  thoughts,  a  hero 
king  baffled  of  his  true  vocation,  nor  yet  an  enthusiast  philoso- 
pher, but  an  untamed,  undisciplined,  selfish,  moody  soldier,  who, 
though  he  could  govern  others  nobly,  could  in  no  sort  govern  his 
own  soul. 

It  was,  as  it  appeai-s,  late  in  the  Autumn  of  the  year  of  Rome 
245,  that  Scipio  disembarked  his  troops  at  Emporiae,  now  Am- 
purias,  a  colony  from  Marseilles  just  within  the  Pyrengean  pro- 
montory— or  Cap  de  Creus — the  first  town  in  the  Hispano- 
Roman  province,  and  his '  thirty  line-of-battle-ships  shoreward  to 
Taragona.  On  them  he  relied,  I  presume,  as  well  for  his  subsis- 
tence as  to  cover  his  march ;  since  the  road  doubtless,  then  as 
now,  ran  close  along  the  coast  through  a  mountainous,  wild,  and 
sterile  country ;  marched  thither  himself  by  land  at  the  head 
of  his  army,  and  established  his  head-quarters  in  that  ancient 
city,  famous  no  more  for  its  antique  splendor,  than  for  the 
glorious  and  immortal  resistance,  characteristic  of  Spanish 
cities  from  Numantia  to  Saragossa,  it  offered  to  the  arms  of 
Suchet. 

And  here,  it  may  be  worth  a  moment's  pause,  to  cast  a 
glimpse  over  the  map  of  Spain,  since  to  do  so  now  will  save 
much  time  and  reference  hereafter.     The  form  of  this  vast  and 


62  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIF'IO. 

mountainous  peninsula  is,  of  course,  generally  familiar  to  my 
readers,  a  huge  irregular  parallelogram,  jutting  out  from  the 
southwestern  extremity  of  Europe  into  the  Atlantic  ocean,  and 
connected  with  the  continent  only  by  a  comparatively  narrow 
Isthmus  walled  by  the  almost  impregnable  Pyrenees,  less  diffi- 
cult of  access  only,  if  less  difficult,  than  the  eternal  snows  of  the 
Alps.  Along  the  northern  coast,  for  seven  degrees  of  distance, 
nearly  parallel  to  the  sea,  these  massive  and  stupendous  barriere 
are  prolonged  in  the  Cantabrian  ridges,  now  the  Asturian  and 
Santillana  mountains.  Among  the  latter,  near  the  modern  town 
of  Reynosa,  rises  the  noble  river  Iberus,  or  Ebro,  flowing  south- 
easterly into  the  Mediterranean  and  forming  with  the  Pyrenees 
and  the  sea-coast,  a  long  narrow-based  acute  triangle,  which  at 
this  period  was  every  foot  of  land  the  Romans  owned  in  Spain, 
being  less  than  a  twelfth  part  of  its  superficial  area,  while 
all  the  rest  was  more  or  less  under  the  control  of  the  Cartha- 
ginians. 

It  is  uncertain,  how  far  northward  their  actual  dominion 
extended ;  nor  does  it  concern  us  much  to  know,  since  all  the 
operations  of  this  war  lay  along  the  eastern  and  southern  coasts, 
from  Tarragona  to  Cadiz,  beyond  the  straits  of  Gibraltar,  and  the 
pillai*s  of  Hercules,  Abyla  and  Calpe. 

Clearly,  however,  their  influence  extended  far  inland,  even  to 
the  shores  of  the  Bay  of  Biscay ;  since  it  was  by  the  passes  of 
St.  Jean  pied  de  Port,  and  the  Adour,  by  which  WeHington 
entered  France  in  1813,  that  Hasdrubal  made  his  bold  and 
almost  successful  attempt  to  reinforce  his  brother,  in  the  extreme 
south  of  Italy. 

How  far  soever  it  extended,  from  east  to  west,  from  north  to 
south,  the  power  of  the  Carthaginians  was  immense,  the  influ- 
ence of  their  Generals  unlimited.  Three  generations  of  the  won- 
derful family  of  Barcas  had  succeeded  each  to  the  other,  living 
almost  as  independent  princes  among  the  nativee.,  many  of  them 


CARTHAGINIAN    Sl'AlN.  08 

marrying,  some  of  them  born,  yet  more  of  them  dying  on  its 
soil,  until  they  were  regarded  by  the  Spaniards  ahiiost  as  their 
natural  sovereigns.  Hanno,  the  father  of  Hamilcar,  Hamilcan 
Hasdrubal,  his  son-in-law,  Hannibal  his  son,  son  also  it  is  said  of 
a  Spanish  lady,  and  now  Hannibal's  brethren,  Hasdrubal  and 
Mago,  had  successively  held  sway,  and  maintained  splendid 
courts  among  them. 

For  it  must  be  remembered  that  Spain  was  then  the  richest 
auriferous  country  in  the  known  world ;  that  its  precious  mines 
were  believed  to  be  inexhaustible.  Spain  was  to  Carthage,  in  a 
word,  what  her  Indian  empire  was  to  England,  in  the  days  of 
Clive  and  Hastings ;  and  the  family  of  the  Bai'cas  were  Spain's 
East  India  Company,  her  merchant  princes,  her  invincible  domi- 
natoi's,  her  nabobs  and  her  sovei'eigns.  And  nearly  by  the  same 
method  as  England  governs  and  conquers  the  Orient,  did 
Carthage  sway  and  subdue  Spain.  For,  in  both  instances,  the 
native  troops  of  the  foreign  governments  were  disproportionately 
small,  while  their  armies  were  kept  up  to  an  almost  fabulous 
amount  by  the  voluntary  or  mercenary  swords  of  the  natives 
themselves.  In  both  instances,  though  the  intrusive  govern- 
ments were  military  and  in  some  sort  despotical,  yet  their  vio- 
lences were  mildness  to  the  clan  cruelties  of  the  petty  princes  of 
the  ever-warring  tribes,  their  rapacity  equal-handed  justice  as 
compared  to  the  barbarous  extortion  of  the  native  rulei*s. 

In  both  instances,  the  natives  had  come  to  love  their  masters, 
to  be  proud  of  being  fellow-soldiei-s  to  their  conquerors.  In  one 
respect,  however,  Carthage  was  in  advance  of  England  in  the 
profit  she  derived  from  her  foreign  domain,  that  she  used  her 
Spaniards  habitually,  not  against  the  natives  of  Spain  only,  but 
as  the  bulk  of  her  home  and  foreign  armies,  the  bravest,  firmest, 
steadiest  of  her  mercenary  soldiers.  Whereas  England  has 
never  but  on  one  occasion  made  use  of  her  Hindoo  troops  in 
extra-Indian  warfare;  when  with  3,600  British  troops  she  landed 


64  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

2,800  Sepoys*  at  Cosseir,  under  Sir  David  Baird,  and  marched 
them  across  the  desert  to  the  Nile,  in  order  to  cooperate  with 
their  European  brothers  in  arms,  in  the  reduction  of  the  French 
under  Menou. 

It  was  against  this  extraordinary  influence,  commanding  the 
richest  gold  mines  in  the  known  world,  and  governing  the 
bravest  and  fiercest  barbarians,  that  the  Romans  were  now  set  to 
struggle,  unaided  except  by  the  fortitude  of  their  own  dauntless 
hearts,  and  now  for  the  first  time  by  the  genius  of  a  truly  great 
leader. 

But  to  resume  our  view  of  S])ain,  we  shall  find  that  the 
eastern  coast  of  the  peninsula  running  southerly  with  a  trending 
toward  th5  west,  and  terminated  by  Cape  Charidenum,  now 
Capo  del  Gata,  is  broken  into  three  great  w\avy  recesses,  not 
deep  enough  to  be  called  bays,  by  the  promontories  Dianium  and 
Scombraria,  now  Capes  Marlin  et  d'Escombrei'a,  close  to  the 
latter  of  which  was  situated  the  stronghold  and  fortress,  as  well 
as  the  capita],  of  the  Hispano-Carthaginian  Empire,  known  then 
as  New  Carthage,  and  to  this  day  a  fine  and  flourishing  city, 
under  the  name  of  Carthagena. 

Westward  of  Capo  del  Gata,  the  coast  runs  nearly  due  east 
and  west,  but  for  the  protrusion  of  the  great  bastion-like  mass  of 
Gibraltar,  to  the  Sacrum  Promontorium,  Cape  St.  Vincent,  famous 
thereafter  for  Sir  John  Jervis's  celebrated  battle  of  St.  Valen- 
tine's Day,  over  the  Spanish  fleet ;  and  between  this  point  and 
the  city  of  Tarragona,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Ebro,  occurred  all 
the  events  of  this  memorable  war,  especially  after  the  first  cam- 

*  Alison.  Hist.  Eur.  I.  137.  In  connection  with  this  fact  I  find  a 
note  so  curious,  that  although  it  has  no  bearing  on  the  text  above,  I  can- 
not resist  quoting  it.  "  A  singular  incident  occurred  on  this  occasion. 
When  the  Sepoy  regiments  came  to  the  monuments  of  ancient 
Egypt,  they  fell  down  and  worshipped  the  images ;  another  proof 
among  the  many  which  exist  of  the  common  origin  of  these  early 
nations." 


TOPOGRAPHY    OF    THK    WAR    IN    SPAIN.  65 

paign,  along  the  valley  of  the  Batis  or  Guadal quiver  which  falls 
into  the  Atlantic  a  little  distance  beyond  the  straits,  near  the 
lovely  city  of  Cadiz.  A  glance,  therefore,  at  the  map  of  the 
provinces  of  Catalonia,  Valencia,  Murcia,  and  Andalusia,  the 
fairest  and  richest  part  of  Spain,  will  enable  the  reader  to  follow 
all  the  operations  of  the  war  with  precision  and  facility. 

Having  arrived  in  Spain,  after  the  troops  had  already  gone 
into  winter  quarters,  Scipio  was,  of  course,  unable  to  set  any 
expedition  on  foot  until  the  opening  of  the  next  spring.  He  did 
not  fail,  however,  to  profit  by  this  period  of  compulsory  inaction, 
by  thoroughly  exercising,  disciplining,  and  encouraging  his  troops, 
and  by  putting  everything  as  regards  arms,  armor,  military 
engines,  entrenching  tools,  and  the  hke,  on  the  most  complete 
and  serviceable  footing. 

Nor  was  he  long  ere  he  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the 
good  effects  of  his  care  and  providence.  During  the  winter,  he 
had  medit£.ted  a  blow  which,  he  readily  perceived,  would  not 
only  give  him  the  advantage  of  the  initiative,  always  of  vast 
importance  in  war,  but  if  successful  would  give  such  a  prestige 
to  his  arms,  as  could  scarcely  fail  to  demoralize  in  a  great 
degree  the  Carthaginian  forces,  to  perplex  their  generals,  and  to 
prevent,  at  least  for  that  campaign,  the  threatened  irruption  of 
Hasdrubal  into  Italy,  a  movement  which  it  was  especially  his 
mission  to  counteract  and  frustrate.  This  blow,  was  the  taking 
of  Carthagena,  the  great  magazine  and  treasury  of  the  Punic 
leaders,  and  the  place  of  confinement  of  all  the  Spanish  hos- 
tages. 

The  ancient  town  of  Carthagena  was  situated  on  a  bold 
peninsula,  jutting  out  to  the  southward  into  a  large  bay,  the 
mouth  of  which  is  sheltered  from  all  winds  but  the  south,  by  a 
small  narrow  island.  The  peninsula  itself  was  formed  by  a  deep 
inner  gulf,  cutting  far  into  the  land  on  its  western  side,  which 
forms  the  interior  harbor  of  the  modern  city,  and  by  a  large 


06  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

lagoon  on  the  eastern  and  part  of  the  northern  faces.  The 
town  is  situated  at  the  southern  extremity,  with  an  easy  ascent 
from  the  sea ;  but,  toward  the  rear  and  the  two  flanks,  it  stands 
on  several  difficult  and  craggy  eminences,  on  the  easternmost  of 
which  was  perched  the  temple  of  JEsculapius,  while  on  the 
western  stood  the  magnificent  palace  of  Hasdrubal.  Between 
these  principal  heights  were  three  lesser  hills  sacred  to  .^culapius, 
Kaletus  reputed  to  be  the  discoverer  of  the  gold  mines,  and 
Saturn. 

It  was  strongly  fortified  to  the  northward  by  lofty  walls  and 
towel's,  which  were  commanded  by  the  heights  within,  and  far- 
ther strengthened  by  a  canal  cut  across  the  isthmus  connecting 
the  lagoon  with  the  sea,  although  this  was  bridged  in  several 
places  for  the  convenience  of  the  citizens.  The  front  and  flanks 
were  defended  by  strong  sea  walls,  yet  of  inferior  height  and 
strength  to  the  landward  ramparts,  as  relying  mainly  for  their 
protection  on  the  watere,  those  of  the  lagoon  not  being  of  suffi- 
cient depth  to  allow  ships  of  war  to  be  brought  against  tho 
defences. 

The  reader,  who  chances  to  be  acquainted  with  the  modern 
city  of  Carthagena,  will  at  first  hardly  recognize  this  descri})tion, 
for  the  lagoon  has  vanished  since  that  time ;  but  on  closer  exam- 
ination he  will  discover  traces  of  it  in  a  large  tract  of  marshy 
land  on  the  north  and  east  of  the  city,  which  even  yet  after 
unusually  heavy  rains  is  at  times  converted  into  an  inundation ; 
but  at  the  period  of  Scipio's  daring  coup  de  main,  it  was  open 
to  the  slight  rise  and  fall  of  the  gentle  Mediterranean  tides.* 

At  the  opening  of  this  campaign,  the  three  Carthaginian 
generals  had  most  injudiciously  divided  their  forces,  which  united 
were  sufficient  to  have  crushed  the  Romans  at  a  blow ;  just  as 
Napoleon's  marshals  did  at  a  later  day  with  a  greater  than 
Scipio,  and  in  like  manner  suftered  their  opponents  to  strike  a 
^  Polyb.  X.  10.     Livy  XXVI.  43. 


DESCRIPTION    OF    NEW    CARTHAGE.  67 

deadly  blow  at  their  heart,  and  gain  a  central  position,  enabling 
him  to  act  in  force  against  either  of  them  disunited  with  superior 
strength. 

Never  were  circumstances  more  nearly  identical  than  those  of 
the  sieges  of  New  Carthage  by  Scipio,  and  of  Ciudad  Rodrigo 
by  Wellington,  the  dispersion  of  the  hostile  armies  in  moderately 
distant  quarters,  leaving  both  towns  exposed  to  a  rapid  and 
sudden  attack,  while  their  vicinity  rendered  it  absolutely  indis- 
pensable that  the  fortresses  must  be  attacked  with  the  utmost 
secrecy,  and  carried  with  a  rapidity,  which  in  neither  case  could 
be  fairly  anticipated. 

In  both  cases,  however,  the  audacity  and — as  it  may  almost 
be  termed — rashness  of  the  generals  were  justified  by  the  indom- 
itable strength  and  intrepidity  of  the  veterans  they  commanded, 
and  by  the  triumph  which  crowned  either  enterprise. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  the  year  of  the  city  545,  having  learned 
that  Mago,  with  his  army,  was  lying  at  a  place  called  Conii,  near 
the  pillare  of  Hercules,  that  Hasdrubal,  the  son  of  Gisco,  was  on 
the  river  Tagus  in  Lusitania,  and  Hasdrubal  Barca  besieging  a 
city  in  Carpetania,  now  New  Castile,  so  that  none  of  them  were 
within  ten  days'  march  of  Carthagena,  Scipio  broke  up  from  his 
cantonments,  leaving  Marcus  Silanus  with  three  thousand  foot 
and  five  hundred  horse  to  defend  the  Roman  province,  called 
out  the  contingent  of  the  few  native  allies  Rome  then  possessed, 
ordered  the  army  and  fleet  to  rendezvous  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Iberus,  and  communicating  his  intentions  to  no  one  but  Caius 
Lselius,  his  favorite  Heutenant,  set  on  foot  his  long  premeditated 
design. 

On  joining  his  troops,  as  was  usual,  he  delivered  a  long  and 
eloquent  harangue,  in  which,  according  to  Livy,  he  directly 
promised  and  prophesied  to  the  soldiers  tliat  he  would  eradicate 
the  very  name  of  Carthage  out  of  Spain  ;  and  I  conceive  that  in 
this  instance  far  more  than  usual  credit  attaches  to  the  relation, 


68  PCBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

since  it  is  perfectly  in  character  with  the  genius  of  the  man  ; 
aUhough  in  general,  the  speeches  attributed  by  ancient  authors 
to  the  generals  of  whom  they  are  treating,  are  to  be  regarded  as 
little  more  than  their  own  views  of  the  arguments,  which  influ- 
enced the  conduct  of  the  actors. 

This  done,  he  sent  off  Laehus  with  the  fleet,  instructed  so  to 
time  its  movements  that  the  army  and  the  ships  should  arrive  at 
the  same  moment  under  the  city  walls,  and  marched  himself  on 
the  same  day,  at  the  head  of  his  land  forces.  With  such  un- 
wearied diligence  did  he  press  forward  that  he  is  stated  by  Poly- 
bius  to  have  ari-ived  at  the  isthmus  within  which  the  city  stands, 
on  the  seventh  day,  having  marched  325  Roman  miles,  and  at 
the  very  moment  when  his  fleet  sailed  into  the  outer  harbor ;  so 
that  the  investiture  of  the  town  was  in  the  same  point  of  time 
commenced  and  completed.  His  work  being  so  far  accomplished, 
the  Roman  general  lost  no  time,  but  established  his  camp  across 
the  whole  breadth  of  the  isthmus  on  the  edge  of  the  mainland, 
with  his  flanks  resting  on  the  sea  and  the  lagoon,  and  his  rear 
strongly  fortified  by  an  earthen  work  and  palisade.  The  port 
he  left  open,  in  order,  as  Polybius  says,  to  teri-ify  the  enemy  by 
his  boldness,  as  well  as  to  give  his  own  men  room  enough  to 
deploy  on  advancing  to  the  attack,  but  probably  because  it  was 
sufficiently  defended  by  the  canal. 

On  the  following  morning,  having  already  during  the  winter 
fully  examined  into  the  topography  of  the  city  and  ascertained 
everything  that  it  was  desirable  for  him  to  know,  particularly 
that  at  low  ebb  the  lagoon  was  so  shallow  as  to  be  fordable, 
Scipio  advanced  to  the  front  of  his  army  with  a  smiling  face, 
fully  armed  for  battle  with  his  scarlet  sagum  over  his  coi-slet, 
and  addressing  the  soldiers,  bade  them  "  Be  of  good  cheer,  since 
that  day  they  should  surely  conquer,  for  Neptune  had  appeared 
to  him  in  a  vision  of  the  night,  and  promised  him  that,  should 
the  Romans  need  his  aid,  he  would  give  it  to  them  in  a  manner 


THE    AID    OF    NEPTUNE.  69 

SO  clear  and  evident  that  the  minds  of  the  most  unbelieving 
should  be  convinced." 

And  this  he  said,  well  knowing  that  the  ebb  would  be  at  its 
lowest  on  that  day  late  in  the  afternoon,  and  having  determined, 
if  not  previously  victorious,  to  ford  it  with  a  body  of  picked  men, 
and  escalade  the  walls,  which  were  lower  on  that  side,  while  the 
attention  of  the  enemy  should  be  occupied  by  the  direct  attack 
in  front. 

Surely  such  juggling  as  this  does  not  much  savor  of  that 
heroic  simplicity  of  heart,  that  enthusiastical  sincerity  of  faith,  for 
which  Dr.  Arnold  gives  him  credit.  Men  who  believe  deeply 
in  religious  doctrines,  are  not  apt  to  pla}^  tricks  or  conjure  with 
them  for  temporal  expediency ;  and  he  who  falsifies  them  for 
his  own  advantage,  must  needs  be  a  hypocrite  and  an  im- 
postor. 

Sincere  however,  or  otherwise,  this  trick  was  not  without  its 
immediate  and  favorable  results,  for  the  minds  of  the  men  were 
singularly  impressed  by  his  words,  and  they  advanced  to  the 
attack  with  unusual  spirit  and  excitement. 

At  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  fleet  received  instructions 
to  lay  the  ships  as  nearly  alongside  the  western  walls  as  possible, 
and  to  sweep  them  with  their  powerful  artillery  of  javelins, 
shafts,  and  stones,  so  as  to  make  a  strong  divei*sion  in  favor  of  the 
storming  parties,  which  consisted  of  two  thousand  picked  sol- 
diers, the  strongest,  bravest,  and  most  able-bodied  men  of  his 
whole  army,  bearing  long  scaling  ladders,  and  equipped  only 
with  their  shields  and  the  tremendous  stabbing  broadswords, 
used  from  the  earliest  period  by  the  Roman  infantry. 

Just,  however,  as  the  stern  and  thrilling  notes  of  the  straight 
trumpets  made  the  hills  ring  around,  and  fired  every  warrior  heart 
with  their  fierce  brazen  clangor,  the  city  gates  flew  open,  while 
the  eastern  heights  and  the  palace  hill  were  occupied  by  regular 
guards  of  five  hundred  men  each,  the  armed    citizens  manning 


VO  PUCLXUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

the  walls,  and  Mago  rushed  out  at  the  head  of  two  thousand  of 
his  most  valiant  men,  in  a  desperate  and  daring  sortie. 

At  the  first,  they  were  partially  successful  from  the  impetu- 
osity of  their  charge,  and  they  appeared  to  be  yet  more  so  than 
they  were  in  reality  ;  for  Scipio,  wishing  to  entice  the  enemy  as 
far  as  possible  from  their  supports  and  fortifications,  drew  back 
his  men,  facing  about  from  time  to  time,  and  fighting  gallantly ; 
while  the  Carthaginians,  encouraged  by  this  semblance  of  success, 
and  animated  by  the  cheers  of  their  comrades  on  the  walls, 
pressed  fiercely  forward  on  the  retreating  legionaries,  shouting 
victory,  of  which  they  felt  themselves  already  secure,  and 
charging  so  impetuously,  and  with  a  spirit  so  daring,  as  to 
deserve  it. 

In  the  meantime,  both  parties  were  continually  reinforced  by 
detachments  from  the  city  and  the  camp,  but  the  Romans  far 
more  effectually,  as  well  as  more  rapidly,  since  the  Carthaginians 
had  but  one  narrow  gate  from  which  to  debouch,  and  that 
above  a  quarter  of  a  mile  distant,  while  the  absence  of  palisades 
in  front  of  the  Roman  lines  allowed  them  egress  everywhere,  and 
Scipio  had  withdrawn  his  men  so  far  that  they  were  close  to 
their  own  lines. 

Still,  in  spite  of  this  disadvantage,  the  conflict  was  fierce  and 
terrible,  being  in  fact  little  other  than  a  series  of  individual  single 
combats  along  the  whole  front,  between  men  well  matched  in 
pei-sonal  strength,  courage,  and  activity,  and  similarly  armed 
with  bucklei-s,  and  short  two-edged  broadswords — the  most 
deadly  and  destructive  weapons  that  can  be  used  at  close 
quarters. 

For  above  an  hour,  the  mass  struggled  thus  in  blind  and 
reeling  fury,  swaying  to  and  fro  like  billows  tossed  by  a  tumul- 
tuous wind,  now  one  side  now  the  other  pushing  forward  or 
beaten  back,  and  the  Roman  or  Punic  war-cries  alternately 
rising   loud   and  triumphant  above  the  dreadful  diapason  of 


THE    SORTIE.  7l 

shouts,  and  shrieks,  and  groans,  and  the  clash  and  clang  of  the 
steel  blades  on  the  bronze  casques  and  bucklers,  and  the  mad- 
dening clangor  of  the  brazen  trumpets. 

But,  at  length,  bringing  up  his  reserves,  and  ordering  a 
sudden  charge  at  all  points,  Scipio  gained  his  end,  and  the 
enemy  were  borne  back  bodily  for  some  distance,  by  the  mere 
weight  and  brunt  of  numbers,  before  they  broke  and  fled  ;  which 
they  did  not,  until  they  were  very  near  the  walls  of  the  town. 

Many  fell  in  the  fii-st  close  encounter,  but  far  more — as  was 
invariably  the  case  in  battles  previous  to  the  invention  of  gun- 
powder, where  men  fought  personally  with  short  weapons,  and 
where  individual  hostility  and.  inveterate  rage  and  vengeance 
were  added  to  the  natural  ardor  of  the  soldier — in  the  hot 
pui'suit  that  followed  it. 

Most  of  all  fell  by  their  own  weapons,  or  perished  miserably 
trampled  under  foot  by  their  own  comrades,  entangled,  a  wel- 
tering and  helpless  mass,  on  whose  rear  the  bloody  broadswords 
of  the  Romans  were  doing  merciless  execution,  in  the  narrow 
gateway,  which  was  entirely  insufficient  to  admit  the  tumultuous 
and  panic-stricken  mass. 

So  great  was  the  consternation  within,  that  the  defenders  even 
fled  from  the  ramparts  ;  and  the  cry  went  through  the  streets 
that  the  city  was  taken ;  and  the  shrill  wail  of  miserable  women, 
who  knew  too  well  the  fate  of  cities  stormed  by  the  Romans,  to 
hope  for  anything  but  dishonor  and  death,  already  "  smote 
heaven  in  the  face." 

And  indeed  it  was  scarce  too  soon  ;  for  so  terrible  was  the 
confusion,  that  the  pursuers  almost  forced  their  way  in  pell-mell 
with  the  pursued ;  and  would  assuredly  have  done  so,  had  not 
Mago  resorted  to  the  terrible  alternative  of  closing  his  gates 
against  his  own  fugitives,  and  leaving  them  to  the  mercy  of  the 
Bwords  that,  once  fleshed,  never  spared  a  living  foeman. 

The  massacre  before  tj?e  gat^  ended,  Scipio  gave  the  word 


Y2  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

to  advance  and  assault  the  walls,  at  all  points,  in  great  force  ; 
not  attempting  to  make  approaches  in  form,  or  to  shake  the 
ramparts  with  the  ram — for  to  do  so  would  have  occupied  so 
much  time  as  to  have  permitted  the  Carthaginian  armies  to 
attempt,  and  perhaps  to  effect,  a  relief — but  resolutely  to  carry 
the  place,  at  whatever  loss  of  hfe,  by  sudden  escalade. 

Meantime,  the  fleet  had  got  alongside  of  the  walls,  and  block- 
ading the  harbor  mouth,  was  maintaining  a  distant  but  severe 
discharge  of  artillery  against  the  sea-bastions  and  the  Cartha- 
ginian galleys,  which  acted  rather  as  a  diversion  to  the  principal 
attack,  dividing  and  distracting  the  attention  of  the  defenders  of 
the  city,  than  as  itself  an  effective  onslaught. 

It  will  be  of  course  remembered,  that  in  those  days  there  was 
no  incessant  booming  of  ordnance,  no  continuous  roll  of  mus- 
ketry, deafening  the  ears  and  stunning  the  senses,  to  the  exclusion 
of  all  lesser  sounds,  by  its  interminable  thunder — that  there 
were  no  volumes  of  murky  smoke-cloud  covering  the  deeds  of 
darkness  done  within  its  shadow,  as  with  an  impenetrable  pall — 
but  it  is  probable  that  the  absence  of  these,  instead  of  detracting 
from  the  horrible  sublimity  of  the  battle-field,  added  to  its 
terrors,  and  increased  its  magnificence.  Then,  every  individual 
cry,  from  the  heroic  shout  of  some  leading  champion  to  the 
cheer  of  charging  thousands,  from  the  sharp  shriek  extorted 
from  some  bold  heart  by  sudden  and  intolerable  anguish,  to  the 
sick  gasping  groan  of  the  death  agony,  all  rose  to  the  ear  dis- 
tinct and  audible.  Then  every  manoeuvre  of  troops,  of  squa- 
drons, every  brave  blow,  every  gallant  exploit  of  individual 
heroism,  was  seen  by  the  leader's  eye  ;  and  the  whole  field  of 
action  was  one  unclouded  blaze  of  brazen  casques  and  brazen 
corslets,  flashing  and  lightening  in  the  sunbeams,  with  blood-red 
banners  rustling  over  head,  and  the  tall  black  and  scarlet 
plumes  of  the  legionaries  tossing  in  the  air,  and  the  bright 
*  Polybius  X.  12.     Appian  VI.  21.     Livy  XXVI.  44. 


THE    FIRST    ASSAULT.  YS 

crimson  cassocks  of  the  leaders  conspicuous  among  the 
manipules. 

And  now,  as  the  assault  commenced,  the  air  was  literally 
rent  asunder  by  missiles  of  every  description,  from  the  vast 
falaricce^  huge  beams  of  wood  steel-shod,  sent  hurtling  against 
the  Roman  Unes,  from  the  gigantic  cross-bows;  great  stones, 
ton  weight,  launched  high,  like  modern  shells,  into  the  atmo- 
sphere, to  crush  whole  files  by  their  fall ;  and  volleys  of  pon- 
derous javeUns  driven  with  mighty  force  from  the  catapults, 
down  to  darts  cast  from  the  hand,  close  flights  of  arrows,  and 
sling-shot  falling  like  hail  into  the  advancing  cohorts. 

The  eye  was  dazzled  by  the  incessant  stream  of  missiles, 
gleaming  and  rushing  through  the  half-darkened  sunshine  ;  and 
the  sharp  twang  of  the  bow-strings,  the  whizzing  of  the  shafts, 
and  the  deep  resonant  hurtling  of  the  heavier  missiles  were 
blended  strangely  and  fearfully  with  the  barbaric  shouts  of  the 
defendei*s  of  the  walls,  and  the  long  stern  blasts  of  the  trumpets 
"  that  bid  the  Romans  close." 

So  fearful,  indeed,  was  the  incessant  stream  of  arrow-shots, 
sling-shots,  and  javelins,  and  so  fast  did  the  men  fall,  that  as  is 
ever  the  case  when  troops  waver,  the  officers  rushed  to  the  fi'ont 
to  encourage  them,  and  Scipio  himself,*  covered  by  the  large 
oblong  shields  of  three  powerful  young  men,  formed  in  testudo 
before  him,  advanced  in  front  of  the  extreme  right,  and  greatly 
comforted  his  men,  by  his  presence  and  encouragement. 

And  now  the  ladders  were  set  up  against  every  coigne  and 
flank  of  the  walls,  and  the  shouts  of  the  assault  waxed  wild  and 
furious,  as  upswarmed,  sword  in  hand,  the  daring  Romans.  But 
many  of  the  ladders  were  too  short,  and  the  assailants  were 
overwhelmed  with  stones  and  javelins  from  above,  frantic  at 
their  own  inability  to  come  to  thrust  of  'pilum,^  or  stroke  of 
sword,  with  the  enemy ;  many  broke  sheer  in  twain  under  the 
•  Polybius  X.  14.     Livy  XXVI.  44. 


74  rUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

weight  of  the  numbers,  clad  in  full  panoply,  who  struggled  up 
them ;  many  were  hurled  bodily  backward,  stormers  and  all,  by 
the  defenders,  so  that  the  brave  men,  who  still  rushed  upon 
what  seemed  certain  death  undaunted,  lay  in  piles,  maimed, 
broken,  crushed,  and  grovelling  like  worms,  at  the  foot  of  the 
insurmountable  walls,  or  perished  miserably  transfixed  by  the 
spears  of  their  comrades. 

Nor  were  those  who  ascended  to  the  battlements  more  fortu- 
nate ;  for  so  vast  was  the  height  of  the  ramparts,  that  many, 
when  within  sword's  length  of  the  defenders,  became  helplessly 
giddy,  lost  their  heads,  and  their  foothold,  and  plunged  sheer 
down,  to  be  dashed  to  atoms ;  and  many  more  were  dragged 
forcibly  from  the  ladders  with  barbed  hooks,  and  either  cast 
headlong,  or  upheld  to  writhe  out  their  agonies  in  mid  air. 

None  gained  the  summit  of  the  walls — not  one. 

But  still  raved  on  the  maddening  trumpets,  still  pealed  the 
fierce  shouts,  now  of  pei'sonal  vindictiveness  and  vengeance ; 
still  up  went  ladder  after  ladder ;  up  went,  undeterred,  the  eagles 
and  the  cohorts. 

By  this  time  the  day  had  advanced  to  nearly  three  in  the 
afternoon,  and  beside  the  frightful  loss  of  life  which  the  Romans 
had  endured,  and  Iheir  total  want  of  success,  the  extraordinary 
heat  of  the  mid-day  in  the  south  of  Spain,  even  in  early  spring- 
time, overpowered  alike  defenders  and  assailants. 

So  that  when  Scipio  commanded  the  trumpets  to  sound  a 
recall,  the  discomfited  and  shattered,  but  not  dispirited,  Romans 
gladly  drew  off  their  forces.  And  yet  more  gladly  did  the 
defendfti-s  quit  the  walls,  proud  of  their  success,  beUeving  that 
their  day's  work  was  over,  and  confident  in  their  ability  to 
maintain  themselves,  until  the  siege  should  be  raised  by  the 
arrival  of  Hasdrubal  or  Mago  with  one  of  their  armies. 

Nothing,  however,  was  less  in  Scipio's  intention  than  to  give 
them  more  than  a  temporary  respite.     He  had  learned  from  his 


THE    STORMING.  Y5 

watchei-s  that  the  tide  had  begun  to  turn;  and,  while  the 
enemy,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  tired  and  drowsy  sentinels, 
had  retired  to  their  houses  to  refresh  themselves  and  sleep  after 
the  fatigues  of  the  assault,  he  had  already  detached  a  party  of 
^ve  hundred  picked  men,  led  by  guides  well  acquainted  with 
the  watei-s  and  the  bottom  of  the  lagoon,  to  turn  its  northern 
extremity,  follow  its  eastern  shore,  and  attack  the  walls  with 
their  ladders,  where  they  were  low  and  wholly  undefended,  ^c 
soon  as  the  ebb  should  be  at  the  lowest. 

In  the  meantime,  within  his  camp,  he  had  formed  his  best 
men  with  all  his  reserves,  provided  new  ladders,  longer  and 
stronger — at  which  the  artificers  of  his  corps  had  been  inces- 
santly employed — equipped  them  in  the  best  manner  for  the 
assault,  and  prepared  powerful  covering  parties  of  javelin eers, 
slingers,  and  bowmen,  to  protect  the  advance  of  the  stormers, 
while  the  weary  Carthaginians  were  thinking  only  of  solacing 
the  inward  man,  after  the  laboi-s  of  the  day. 

And  now  the  ebb  had  fallen  so  low,  that  where  in  the  morn- 
ing the  waters  of  the  lagoon  would  have  reached  fully  to  a  tall 
man's  armpits,  they  would  now-  scarcely  wet  his  knees ;  and 
Scipio,  seeing  that  his  time  had  arrived,  rushed  to  the  head  of 
his  storming  parties — "  JSTow,  my  men,  now !  The  time  hath 
come  I  Lo !  the  God  fights  for  us,  the  God  Neptune,  even  as 
he  promised  !  To  the  walls  !  to  the  walls !  the  sea  retreats 
before  us — to  the  walls,  forward !  forward  !'"^ 

Outspoke  again  the  trumpets,  shriller  and  madder  than 
before ;  iipwent  the  mighty  cheer  of  twenty  thousand  men  to 
the  astonished  firmament,  and  forth  rushed  the  forlorn  hopes 
with  their  ladders,  followed  by  their  stormers,  and  covered  by 
their  light  infantry  with  clouds  of  arrows  and  sling-shot. 

Taken  by  surprise,  and  dispirited    already,    having   thought 
their  work  done  for  the  day,  the  Carthaginians  hurried  to  their 
*  Appian  VI.  21. 


76  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

walls,  but  not  with  the  same  vigor  and  determination  as  before. 
Their  stock  of  artillery  and  missiles  were  failing,  their  hearts 
faihng  also. 

Still  they  resisted  manfully  in  front,  and  held  the  Romans  at 
bay  stoutly,  though  these  now  forced  their  way  bodily  up  the 
ladders,  and  at  the  head  of  each  fought  desperately  blow  and 
thrust,  another  enemy  coming  up  hand  to  hand,  when  the  one 
above  him  fell.  Othei*s  crowded  to  the  great  gates,  on  the 
leaves  of  which  their  axes  began  to  clang  ominous  of  speedy 
ruins. 

But  while  the  conflict  was  still  balanced,  and  the  Romans 
were  unable  to  force  their  way  over  the  battlements,  or  through 
the  massive  portals,  a  fearful  sound  fell  upon  the  ears  of  the 
defenders. 

A  fierce  Roman  shout,  a  shout  of  victory,  harbingered  by  an 
exulting  burst  of  horns  and  trumpets  from  the  sea  wall  in  their 
rear. 

Neptune  had  kept  his  promise. 

Without  the  loss  of  a  single  man,  the  stormere  had  forded 
the  lagoon,  mounted  the  undefended  walls,  and  establishing 
themselves  in  force  on  the  esplanade,  now  gave  this  note  of  dis- 
may and  havoc  to  the  enemy,  of  triumphant  encouragement  to 
their  countrymen. 

The  next  moment  a  fierce  rush  cleared  the  rampart,  the 
street — the  bai-s  and  bolts  of  the  gates  were  hewn  asunder ;  in 
rushed,  like  an  entered  tide,  the  merciless  assailants  of  the  gates ; 
and,  encouraged  beyond  measure  by  the  shouts  of  their  com- 
rades, the  escaladei-s  overflowed  the  walls  at  fifty  points  at  once, 
a  torrent  of  living  "  sound  and  fury  !"  Mago  still  did  his  duty 
as  a  governor,  as  a  soldier.  He  drew  back  and  concentrated 
the  remains  of  his  force  in  the  market-place ;  but  these  being 
overwhelmed  by  numbei-s,  and  cut  to  pieces,  as  it  were,  in  a 
moment,  he  shut  himself  up  with  a  handful  of  men  in  the 


THE    SACK.  Y7 

citadel,*  where  being  able  to  effect  nothing  more,  he  shortly 
after  surrendered  himself  to  Scipio. 

Thereupon  began  the  saddest,  cruellest,  most  revolting  and 
inhuman  spectacle  that  even  horrid  war  has  ever  witnessed — the 
sacking  of  a  captured  city  by  a  Roman  army.f  The  fate  of 
taken  towns  is  always  cruel,  lamentable  enough,  at  all  times, 
even  under  the  milder  usages  of  civihzed  nations  under  the  light 
of  Christian  dispensation.  But  there  is  this  wide  distinction 
between  the  most  terrible  excesses  of  a  modern  arm.y,  and  the 
dehberate  barbarity  of  victorious  Romans ;  in  the  former 
the  outi-ages  are,  as  it  were,  casual,  consequent  on  the 
passsions  of  a  fierce  soldiery,  infuriate  from  loss  and  resistance, 
on  the  bonds  of  discipline  broken  for  a  moment  in  the  tumult  of 
the  storm,  and  are  in  every  case  resisted,  checked,  and  punished 
by  the  officers.  In  a  Roman  sack,  on  the  contrary,  the  word 
was  given  by  the  general,  as  it  was  in  this  case  by  Scipio  him- 
self, to  go  in  and  kill,  to  spare  no  living  thing,  man,  woman, 
child,  even  the  dumb  beasts  of  the  doomed  city ;  to  hold  not 
back  the  hand  for  mercy,  nor  for  ransom,  no,  nor  for  plunder, 
until  the  signal  should  be  given  by  the  trumpets  to  turn  from 
massacre  to  robbery  and  worse  license.  "  And  this  they  do,  I 
think,"  says  Polybius,  their  friend  and  panegyrist,  "  for  the  sake 
of  sti'iking  consternation  into  their  enemies.  Wherefore  it  is 
of  frequent  occurrence  to  see  in  cities  stormed  by  the  Romans, 
not  only  men  and  women  butchered,  but  even  the  dogs  cloven 
asunder,  and  the  limbs  of  other  domestic  animals  hewn  off  and 
mutilated."J 

It  would  appear,  however,  that  on  this  occasion  the  cold- 
blooded massacre  was  scarcely  continued  so  long  as  usual,  for  it 
ceased  so  soon  as  Mago  laid  down  his  arms  and  surrendered 
himself ;  and  thereafter  commenced  the  systematic  and  thorough 
ransacking  and  plundering  of  every  house  in   the  city,  which 

*  Appian  VF.  22.  f  Polybius  X.  15.  t  Polybius  X.  16, 


78  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

lasted  until  nightfall,  when  the  centurions  called  off  the  soldiei-s, 
and  assembled  them  with  all  the  booty  and  the  captives,  with- 
out exception,  on  the  market-place,  where  they  rallied  under 
their  respective  banners  in  perfect  discipline  and  order,  and 
bivouacked  there  among  their  miserable  victims. 

Then,  as  uight  fell,  guards  w^ere  appointed  to  keep  the  camp  ; 
a  force  of  a  thousand  field  of  heavy  infantry  was  posted  on  the 
palace  hill,  and  all  the  javelineers  were  brought  in  from  the 
camp  and  arrayed  on  the  eastern  hillock,  which  is  called  that  of 
-^culapius. 

"  Thus  it  was  that  the  Romans  became  masters  of  Carthage, 
which  is  in  Spain ;"  and  so  night  sunk  down  friendly  and 
grateful,  and  bringing  temporary  quiet  both  to  the  cruel  and 
triumphant  victors,  and  to  the  helpless  and  exhausted  captives, 
a  quiet,  to  endure  only  to  the  morning's  dawn,  and  then  to  be 
succeeded,  as  they  would  naturally  expect,  by  new  agonies,  new 
insults,  and  new  horrors. 

On  the  following  morning  a  regular  examination  into  the 
number  of  the  captives  and  the  amount  of  plunder  followed ; 
when  it  appeared  that  about  ten  thousand  Spanish  citizens  and 
denizens  were  prisoners  of  New  Carthage ;  to  the  former  of 
whom,  with  their  families,  Scipio  immediately  granted  their  free- 
dom, their  political  rights,  and  the  enjoyment  of  whatever  pro- 
perty remained  to  them,  after  the  sack  of  the  preceding  day — a 
clemency  most  unusual  in  a  Roman  commander,  and  in  this 
instance  unquestionably  a  line  of  conduct  originating  rather  in  a 
wise  and  far-sighted  policy,  than  in  any  sentiments  of  mercy  or  of 
humanity. 

The  artificers  and  mechanics,  to  the  number  of  two  thousand, 
he  retained  for  the  present,  as  public  slaves  of  the  Roman  peo- 
ple, with  the  promise  of  their  freedom  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
war,  in  case  of  their  being  found  loyal  to  their  new  masters ; 
and   these  he   caused  report  themselves  to   the  qusestor,  and 


PRIZES    OF    VICTORY.  79 

divided  them  into  gangs  of  thirty,  and  under  a  Roman  inspec- 
tor. This  done,  he  set  them  instantly  to  work  at  their  several 
trades,  some  to  increase  the  height  of  the  sea-walls,  over  which  he 
had  forced  his  way,  and  to  reinforce  them  with  buttresses,  flanks, 
and  parapets ;  others  to  repair  and  furbish  arms  and  armor ;  to 
provide  store  of  missiles  for  the  powerful  artillery  he  had  cap- ' 
tured ;  and  to  place  everything,  within  and  without  the  fortress, 
on  the  most  complete  war-footing.  From  the  remaining  prison- 
ers of  the  lower  classes,  sailors,  fishermen,  and  the  like,  he  se- 
lected all  the  youngest,  finest-looking,  and  most  vigorous  of  the 
men,  whom  he  introduced  among  the  crews  of  his  own  ships  of 
war,  in  the  ratio  of  about  one  to  two  ;  and  thus  having  increased 
his  marine  forces  by  about  a  third,  he  manned  the  eighteen 
Carthaginian  galleys,  which  he  had  taken  in  the  docks,  and 
added  them  to  his  own  fleet,  of  thirty  quinqueremes,  which  were 
the  line-of-battle-ships  of  that  day.  Thereafter  he  entreated  the 
Spanish  hostages,  who  were  detained  by  the  Carthaginians  in 
the  city,  with  all  honor  and  respect,  loaded  them  with  gifts,  and 
restored  them  to  their  several  tribes  well  pleased,  and  gratefully 
contrasting  the  justice  and  clemency  of  their  Roman  conquerors, 
with  the  insolence  and  violences  of  their  Punic  masters  or  allies. 
On  his  army  he  lavished  the  highest  praises,  liberally  bestowed 
crowns  and  decorations  on  those  who  had  the  most  distinguished 
themselves,  and  reviewed  the  whole  of  his  forces  on  the  several 
successive  days,  so  that,  in  lieu  of  being  relaxed  in  discij)hne,  as 
is  frequently  the  case  by  the  indulgences  and  hcense  which  are 
so  apt  to  follow  the  sack  of  a  rich  and  luxurious  city,  they  were 
actually  in  better  condition  for  the  resumption  of  hostihties 
than  they  had  been  in  the  first  instance  to  commence  them. 

On  the  following  day,  Lgelius,  his  heutenant,  set  sail  for  Rome, 
carrying  with  him  Mago,  the  commander  of  the  garrison,  two 
members  of  Supreme  Council,  and  fifteen  senators  of  Carthage, 
with  all  the  Punic  captives ;  the  bearer  also  of  tidings  the  moet 


iQ  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

,^ateful  and  glorious  that  Rome  had  received,  since  Hannibal's 
descent  from  the  icy  ramparts  of  the  Alps  into  the  rich  plains  of 
Lombardy  and  Piedmont. 

The  consequences  of  the  taking  of  New  Carthage  were  not 
less  important,  than  the  circumstances  were  creditable  to  the 
soldiery,  and  glorious  to  the  general,  who  had  commenced  his 
nrst  campaign  by  delivering  a  stroke  so  brilliant,  that  while  con- 
founding all  the  combinations  of  the  enemy,  and  throwing  him 
back  upon  a  timid  and  cautious  defensive,  it  doubled  in  a  single 
day  the  moral  strength  of  his  own  army,  and  made  his  soldiere 
hold  themselves  at  once  invincible. 

In  eleven  days*  from  breaking  up  his  cantonments  at  Tarra- 
gona, in  four  from  his  investment  of  New  Carthage,  and  in  a 
brief  but  bloody  storm  of  a  few  houi*s,  he  had  made  himself 
master  of  the  strongest  fortress  of  the  enemy  in  all  Spain  ;  had 
released  all  the  hostages,  by  holding  whom  he  held  the  native 
tribes  less  as  allies  than  as  subjects ;  had  taken  all  his  ai*senals, 
with  a  vast  artillery,  and  munitions  of  war  almost  incalculable ; 
all  his  naval  docks  and  storehouses,  with  eighteen  ships  of  war, 
and  above  sixty  sail  of  merchant  vessels  loaded  with  cargoes  so 
rich  as  no  other  land  than  Spain  then  exported  ;  and,  last,  not 
least,  all  his  principal  treasuries,  filled  with  the  produce  of  the 
gold  mines  of  Tarshish  and  Ophir,  in  coined  money  to  the 
amount  of  six  hundred  talents,  or  nearly  a  million  of  dollars,  be- 
sides a  far  greater  sum  in  rude  ingots,  in  plate  and  vessels,  sta- 
tues and  sacrificing  utensils  of  pure  bullion  ;  so  that,  in  one  word, 
so  vast  was  the  amount  of  public  property  taken  from  the  enemy, 
that  Carthage  itself  appeared  the  least  valuable  of  all  the  re- 
wards of  this  remarkable  victory." 

The  conduct  of  Scipio  in  this  memorable  storm  bore  a  strong 
resemblance  to  that  of  Lord  AVellington,  at  the  opening  of  his 
fourth  Peninsular  campaign,  when  the  dissensions  between  the 
*  Appian  VI.  23.  t  Livy  XXVI.  47. 


CLOSE    OF    THE    FIRST    CAMPAiaN.  81 

French  marshals  and  the  unsoldierly  dispersion  of  their  armies, 
enabled  him  to  strike  the  two  deadly  blows  at  the  strongholds 
of  Ciudad  Rodrigo  and  Badajos,  both  of  which  he  captm*ed  in 
an  incomparably  short  space  of  time,  thereby  seizing  the  initiative, 
which  he  was  enabled  to  maintain  until  the  final  expulsion  of  the 
invaders  from  the  peninsula  of  Spain.  But  the  immediate  con- 
sequences are  not  precisely  similar,  inasmuch  as  Scipio  was  not  as 
yet  sufficiently  strong,  nor  his  influence  and  authority  with  the 
natives  so  firmly  established,  as  to  justify  his  advancing  at  once 
into  the  heart  of  the  country,  where  be  would  be  opposed  to  the 
combined  attack  of  three  Punic  armies,  each  singly  superior  to 
his  own,  and  led  by  three  generals  at  that  time  unsurpassed  by 
any  except  Hannibal  himself. 

Contented,  therefore,  with  the  great  and  brihiant  exploit  he 
had  performed,  and  the  immense  moral  influence  he  had  gained 
over  the  Spanish  mind  by  his  treatment  of  the  hostages  and  the 
native  population  of  the  captured  city,  he  resolved  to  attempt  no 
faither  active  operations  during  the  present  season ;  the  rather 
that  his  soldiers,  who  had  been  now  several  yeai-s  abroad,  with 
out  receiving  pay  or  supplies  from  home,  were  suftering  sorely 
from  the  want  of  shoes  and  clothing. 

So  soon,  therefore,  as  he  had  seen  the  new  defences  of  the  place 
completed,  and  the  whole  fortress  re-established  in  a  perfect  posi- 
tion of  defence,  in  fact  far  more  capable  of  resistance — indepen- 
dent even  of  the  admitted  superiority  of  Roman  legionaries  when 
fighting  behind  walls,  to  any  troops  that  could  be  brought  against 
them — than  it  had  been  previous  to  his  storming  it,  he  garri- 
soned it  very  strongly  with  both  horse  and  foot  and  returned 
leisuj'ely  to  Tarragona ;  where  he  labored  assiduously  at  the  per- 
fect organization  of  his  army,  and  the  conciliation  of  the  allies, 
until  he  might  hope  to  be  equal  again  to  assume  the  aggres- 
Bive. 

In  the  meantime,  it  is  very  difficult  to  understand  or  account 
4* 


82  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

for  the  strange  want  of  co-operation  among  the  Punic  leaders, 
and  their  inactivity  at  a  moment  when  by  a  combined  motion 
of  their  three  armies,  they  might  possibly  have  retaken  New 
Carthage,  and  at  all  events  might  have  shut  up  their  youthful 
adversary  within  the  Ebro,  and  so  deprived  him  of  a  portion  of 
the  prestige  of  success,  and  prevented  him  from  extending  his 
influence  over  the  fickle  barbarians. 

This  conduct  is  the  more  remarkable,  when  we  consider  the 
fact,  that  of  the  three  Carthaginian  leaders  two  were  brothers 
of  Hannibal,  and  therefore,  one  would  imagine,  committed  to  his 
policy — that  Hasdrubal  was  under  orders  both  from  his  brother 
in  Italy,  and  from  the  Senate  at  home,  to  cross  the  Alps  im- 
mediately and  reinforce  him — and  lastly  that  Mago  was  ap- 
pointed by  Hannibal  himself  to  command  in  chief  in  his  brother's 
absence ;  and  was,  moreover,  as  he  afterward  approved  himself, 
a  soldier  of  undoubted  ability,  and  fully  able  to  appreciate  the 
advantage  of  time  and  the  value  of  combined  operations. 

What  was  the  nature  of  Hasdrubal  Gisco's  command,  or  how 
far  it  was  independent  of  the  others,  we  have  no  means  of  ascer- 
taining, since  no  Carthaginian  accounts  have  reached  us ;  and,  as 
Dr.  Arnold  has  well  observed,  "  the  interior  of  a  Carthaginian 
camp,  and  still  more  the  real  characters  and  feelings  of  the 
Carthaginian  generals  are  utterly  unknown  to  us." 

It  cannot  be,  however,  that  at  this  instant,  the  very  crisis  of 
the  Hannibalic  war  in  Italy — when  for  the  fii-st  time  the  fideUty 
of  the  Latin  name  was  wavering,  when  twelve  out  of  the  thirty 
Roman  colonies  had  declared  their  inability  to  send  in  their 
contingents  either  of  men  or  money — mere  jealousies  between 
the  officers  should  have  defeated  the  attempting  of  a  movement, 
vociferously  demanded  by  Hannibal  as  of  the  first  importance, 
and  enjoined  on  the  leaders  by  the  home  government.  Thus 
much  only  is  evident  at  a  glance ;  that  Hasdrubal  Barca  lay  all 
the  remainder  of  this  year,  and  till  late  in  the  next  campaign,  at 


iiasduubal's  inactivity.  83 

a  town  variously  named  Elinga,  Tlipa,  and  Silpia,  the  site  of 
which  cannot  be  satisfactorily  identilied,  although  it  is  known  to 
have  been  adjacent  to  the  silver-mines  in  the  Sierra  Morena,  and  to 
have  stood  on  the  lower  Guadalquivir.  Perhaps  it  was 
Alcolea. 

Again,  the  route  by  which  Hasdrubal  did  actually  penetrate 
into  Italy  on  the  following  year,  across  the  central  table-land  of 
Spain,  and  by  the  western  passes  of  the  Pyrenees,  was  entirely 
open  to  him  at  this  very  period ;  since  the  position  of  Scipio  at 
Tarragona,  on  the  extreme  eastern  coast  of  Spain,  could  not  have 
disquieted  him  for  a  moment  as  to  his  Hne  of  march  through  the 
interior ;  and  it  is  far  more  than  doubtful,  from  the  operations 
of  the  ensuing  campaign,  whether  the  Roman  leader  was  aware 
of  the  existence  of  any  passes,  by  which  the  Pyrenees  could  be 
surmounted,  to  the  northwestward. 

Hence,  I  conceive  that,  whatever  meaning  we  may  attach  to 
the  want  of  combined  action  between  Mago  and  Hasdrubal 
Barca  in  the  following  year,  546  of  Rome,  we  may  assume  it  as 
a  fact,  that  some  causes,  wholly  separate  from  jealousy,  or 
absence  of  the  desire  to  co-operate,  rendered  it  impossible  for 
Hasdrubal  to  attempt  the  invasion  of  Italy  during  this  eventful 
autumn. 

That  cause  I  presume  to  have  been  simply  this ;  that  tho 
great  blow  of  Scipio  at  the  heart  of  the  Punic  Empire  in  Spain, 
deprived  Hasdrubal  in  one  day,  of  the  very  treasures,  stores,  and 
supplies,  on  which  he  had  rehed  for  the  prosecution  of  his  in- 
tended effort.  That,  seeing  the  probabiUty  of  a  long  siege,  and 
the  great  doubtfulness  of  complete  success,  in  case  of  an  attempt 
to  recover  New  Carthage,  he  judged  it  better,  and  probably  so 
judged  wisely,  to  fill  a  new  mihtary  chest  from  the  mines  under 
his  control,  and  to  collect  fresh  supplies  and  manitions  of  war  in 
his  own  winter  quartei*s,  than  to  risk  Iho  defeat  and  dis- 
organization of  the  forces  destined  to  deal  the  fatal  blow  and 


84  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

close  the  war  in  Italy  with  a  thunderbolt,  in  attacknig  an  enemy 
of  no  importance,  should  that  blow  be  struck  against  Rome's 
vitals. 

It  is  very  possible,  moreover,  that  the  Punic  armies  were  pur- 
posely scattered  widely  asunder,  in  order  to  give  them  facilities 
cf  foraging  in  a  barren  and  sparsely  cultivated  country,  and  to 
enable  Hasdrubal  to  gather  in  the  undivided  crops  of  the  rich 
valley  of  the  Guadalquivir,  for  the  sole  benefit  of  his  own 
division. 

Lastly,  it  appeai-s  to  me  that  the  sudden  and  unexpected 
treason  and  defection  of  Mandonius  and  Indibilis,  with  the 
southern  Spaniards  who  had  not  fallen  personally  into  the  sphere 
of  Scipio's  fascination,  which  is  scarcely  explicable  on  the  grounds 
of  the  wonted  fickleness  of  barbarians,  must  be  attributed  t< 
some  recent  acts  of  oppression  and  violence  on  the  part  of  the 
Carthaginians  ;  which  they  would  not  naturally  have  been  like  to 
commit,  unless  on  the  plea  of  absolute  necessity,  at  such  a  crisis, 
when  it  was  all-important  to  them  to  hold  their  aUies  steady  in 
their  allegiance. 

But  if  they  were  so  straitened  by  the  capture  of  their  maga- 
zines, treasures,  and  military  stores  at  Carthagena,  as  to  render 
the  utmost  exertions  needful  for  the  opening  of  the  ensuing 
campaign,  the  unavoidable  necessity  would  have  arrived.  Nor 
is  it  otherwise  than  highly  probable,  compelled  as  the  Cartha- 
ginians were  by  their  circumstances  and  unsupported  position  to 
make  war  support  war,  that  they  should  have  recourse  to  the  use 
of  forced  labor  in  the  mines,  forced  levies  of  provisions  and 
munitions  of  war,  and  forced  impositions  of  all  kinds,  to 
provide  themselves  at  all  points  for  the  emergencies  of  the 
ensuing  year. 

Thus  it  appeal's  to  me,  we  have  a  clear  solution  of  what 
Arnold  sets  down  almost  as  an  insoluble  mystery,  the  non-com- 
bination of  the  Punic  armies,  and  the  inactivity  of  Hasdrubal 


SECOND    CAMPAIGN.  $$ 

Barca,  at  the  moment  when  activity  was  most  required  of  him. 
And  so  far  are  the  causes,  to  which  I  attribute  the  conduct  of 
the  Carthaginian  leadei-s,  from  seeming  to  me  improbable  ;  that 
I  am  at  a  loss  to  discover  how  they  should  not  have  occurred,  as 
themselves  consequences  of  what  had  preceded  them,  in  the 
capture  of  the  ai-senals  of  Carthagena. 

In  this  view  of  the  case,  the  same  causes  fought  for  Scipio 
against  the  Barca,  which  fought  afterward  for  Wellington  against 
the  Marshals  of  Napoleon ;  and  it  was  then  fii-st  demonstrated, 
as  it  has  been  a  dozen  times  since  then,  that  large  combined 
armies  can  only  be  kept  together  in  the  Peninsula  by  means  of 
supplies  brought  up  from  the  rear,  based  on  the  cooperation  of 
a  powerful  marine  ;  and  that  a  small  army  occupying  a  central 
position  must  succeed  in  the  end,  against  very  superior  dispei-sed 
forces ;  which  the  nature  of  the  country  and  the  necessities  of 
warfare  will  not  allow  to  act,  for  any  considerable  length  of  time, 
in  unison. 

Let  this,  however,  be  explained,  or  remain  unexplained,  as  it 
may,  Scipio  lay  during  the  whole  autumn  and  winter  in  his 
quarters  at  Tarragona  entirely  unmolested,  even  by  a  demon- 
stration against  his  new  conquest ;  and  the  three  Punic  generals 
lay  as  tranquilly  at  the  head  of  their  several  armies  in  the  dis- 
tricts they  had  occupied,  and  from  which  they  had  not  moved, 
during  the  assault,  or  since  the  capture  of  Carthagena. 

How  they  were  employed,  we  can  but  hazard  a  conjecture ; 
but  Scipio,  as  we  know,  besides  distributing  the  clothing  and 
pay,  which  he  received  from  Rome  during  the  winter,  among 
his  own  soldiers,  and  keeping  them  in  admirable  discipline,  had 
succeeded  so  largely  in  conciliating  the  Spanish  chiefs,  princi- 
pally through  the  intervention  of  Edeco,  whose  wife  and  sons  he 
had  restored  to  him  unransomed,  after  their  being  made 
prisoners  in  New  Carthage,  that  he  not  only  combined  all  the 
tribes  eastward  of  the  Ebro  in  league  against  Carthage ;  but 


PUBLICS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 


gained  an  influence,  through  his  envoys,  over  the  more  distant 
clans  and  leaders,  which  manifested  itself  almost  immediately  on 
the  opening  of  the  next  campaign. 

He  had,  moreover,  sent  ofF^  the  greater  part  of  his  war-ships 
to  assist  the  Praetor  Veturius  in  Sardinia ;  all,  it  is  probable, 
except  such  as  he  found  necessary  to  protect  his  convoys,  and 
maintain  his  communications  with  Italy — since  the  enemy  had 
no  longer  in  those  watei-s  any  naval  force  with  which  to  oppose 
him — and  drafting  from  the  crews  all  the  fighting  men,  and  the 
flower  of  the  mariners,  had  intermixed  them,  as  new  levies,  with 
the  best  and  steadiest  of  his  legionaries,  thus  making  a  very  con- 
siderable addition  to  his  command. 

It  would  appear,  that  the  campaign  of  the  year  546  of  Rome 
began  immediately  on  the  breaking  up  of  winter ;  and  it  is  very 
natural  that  Scipio  should  have  earnestly  desired  to  strike  a 
blow  against  Hasdrubal  Barca,  at  the  earliest  possible  moment ; 
since  to  detain  him  in  Spain  at  all  hazards,  and  prevent  his 
invasion  of  Italy,  was  his  especial  mission.  He  had,  moreover, 
received  intelligence  that  Mandonius  and  IndibiHs,  two  of  the  most 
influential  of  all  the  Spanish  chieftains,  had  already  separated 
themselves  with  their  clans,  from  the  forces  of  Hasdrubal ;  had 
taken  post  on  a  very  strong  height  between  the  Carthaginian 
and  Eoman  camps ;  and  were  awaiting  only  the  advance  of  the 
legions  to  throw  aside  their  quasi  neutrality,  and  join  him  in 
force. 

Why  Hasdrubal  should  have  been  willing  to  await  Scipio's 
advance,  and  to  give  him  battle,  when  his  route  was  already 
determined,  by  the  passes  of  the  Sierra  Morena,  northward  to  the 
"Western  Pyrenees,  by  which  he  might  have  been  hundreds  of 
miles  out  ot  the  Roman's  reach,  before  a  single  eagle  should  be  on 
the  Guadalquivir,  is  less  explicable ;  the  rather  that,  so  far  as 
'^  Livy  XXVI.  22. 


OPERATIONS    AT    B.^CULA.  87 

concerned  liis  own  peculiar  duty,  he  had  all  to  lose,  and  nothing 
to  gain  by  lighting  even  a  victorious  action. 

We  find,  however,  that  he  was  looking  for  Spanish  levies, 
recruited  by  his  brother  Mago  on  the  Oceanic  shores  unaffected 
as  yet  by  Roman  influence ;  and  that  he  also  expected  large 
reinforcements  of  the  terrible  Numidian  horse  under  Masinissa, 
son  of  Gala,  a  tributary  African  king,  without  which  he  did  not 
care  to  break  up  from  his  winter  quarters.  Again,  it  may  be 
that  he  had  hopes  of  once  more  bringing  over  the  disaffected  and 
deserted  Spaniards  from  Scipio  the  son,  as  he  had  previously 
brought  them  over  from  the  father,  before  his  defeat  and  death ; 
and,  once  more,  it  may  have  been,  and  I  think  it  was  the  case, 
that  the  whole  question  was  one  of  time ;  and  that  Scipio's 
march  upon  the  valley  of  the  Guadalquivir  in  546,  as  had 
been  that  on  New  Carthage  in  545,  was  effected  wnth  such 
celerity,  as  in  some  sort  to  effect  a  surprise,  and  defeat  the  pro- 
posed combination  of  the  Punic  leaders. 

Now,  although  it  is  stated  by  Appian,*  that  Mago  and  Mas- 
sinissa  w^ere  present  at  the  affair  and  operations  about  Bsecula,  it 
is  very  certain  from  the  silence  of  Poly  bins,  Scipio's  own  mouth- 
piece, and  from  the  narrative  of  Livy,!  that  Mago  had  not  joined 
when  Scipio  came  upon  the  ground.  And  when  we  find  that 
Massinissa,  who  had  been  especially  sent  to  reinforce  Ilasdrubal 
with  a  view  to  Italian  operations,  did  not  accompany  that  gen- 
eral to  the  Pyrenees,  but  remained  in  Spain,  doing  no  service  of 
any  moment,  when  he  might  have  turned  the  tide  of  victory, 
and  determined  the  fate  of  Rome  herself,  at  the  Metaurus,  we 
may,  I  think,  hold  it  proved  that  the  Numidian  succors  Had  not 
come  up,  any  more  than  Mago's  levies,  when  Ilasdrubal,  finding 
his  hopes  vain  of  bringing  back  the  Spaniards  to  their  allegiance, 
judged  it  better  to  decamp  and  make  the  best  of  his  way  north- 
*  Appian  VI.  27.      f  Livy  XXVII.  20. 


88  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

ward,  with  what  power  he  had,  than  to  i-un  the  risk  of  defeat 
and  dispersion,  by  giving  battle  in  the  absence  of  his  supports. 

The  operations  that  follow  occurred  in  the  valley  of  the  Guad- 
alquivir, at  a  strong  position  and  town  called  Bascula,  the  site  or 
modei'n  name  of  which  cannot  now  be  ascertained ;  though, 
from  its  vicinity  to  Andujar  and  Cazlona,  it  is  supposed  by  many 
to  have  been  at,  or  very  near  to,  Baylen ;  where  occurred  the 
solitary  victory  of  the  Spanish  armies  over  the  French,  in  the 
Peninsular  war  of  tbe  present  century. 

Here  Scipio  found  Hasbrubal  strongly  encamped  in  a 
retrenched  position,  fortified  with  ditch  and  pahsadoes,  and 
evidently  desirous  of  maintaining  himself  there  as  long  as  possible  ; 
in  order,  past  doubt,  to  enable  his  tardy  colleagues  to  join  hira 
when  the  thi-ee  united  armies  would  be  superior  to  the  Romans 
in  such  ratio  as  to  render  an  overwhelming  route  and  carnage 
probable,  if  not  certain. 

The  same  considerations,  which  had  lent  wings  already  to 
Scipio's  advance,  induced  him  now  to  attack  at  once,  before  he 
should  be  outnumbered,  and  overpowered.  He,  therefore,  dis- 
played his  army  without  delay,  and  having,  it  would  seem, 
gained  some  advantages  in  a  cavalry  affair  of  outposts,  threatened 
a  general  attack,  manoeuvring  his  legions  with  such  skill  and 
promptitude,  that  Hasdrubal  judged  it  better  to  evacuate  his 
entrenchments  at  once,  and  fall  back  steadily  on  the  Pyrenees, 
than  to  fight  even  behind  his  defences. 

This,  he  evidently  effected  skilfully  and  thoroughly ;  bnnging 
off  all  his  elephants,  his  baggage,  stores  and  mihtary  chest, 
without  any  material  loss,  either  of  men  or  means.  So  that 
Scipio^s  or  Lselius'  narrative,  as  delivered  by  Polybius,*  of  the 
storming  of  the  Punic  lines  at  Baecula,  with  a  Carthaginian  loss 
of  twelve  thousand  prisoners,  beside  the  killed  and  wounded, 
must  be  set  down  as  an  impudent  exaggeration — too  common, 
=*  Polybius  X.  40. 


HIS    INFLUENCE    WITH    THE    NATIVES.  89 

alas !  in  the  annals  of  the  great  Koman  Houses — if  not  a  yet 
more  impudent  fiction. 

The  truth  is,  that,  except  a  few  Spanish  prisoners — more  or 
less,  it  matters  not — Scipio  had  taken  no  trophies,  and  gained 
no  positive  results  whatsoever  by  his  action  at  this  place,  if  any 
bona  fide  action  there  were.  Hasdrubal,  on  the  contrary,  suc- 
ceeded in  carrying  ojff  the  whole  of  the  treasures,  for  which  he 
had  been  tarrying  so  long,  and  decamped  so  skilfully  and 
secretly  that  Scipio  knew  not  which  route  he  had  taken,  or  in 
which  direction  to  pursue  him,  even  if  he  had  dared  to  pursue ; 
which  he  did  not,  owing  to  the  concentration  of  the  armies  of 
Mago  and  Hasdrubal  Gisco,  a  few  days  after  Hasdrubal  Barca's 
march,  or  retreat,  if  it  may  be  so  termed. 

The  pretence  of  a  decided  victory  gained  by  Scipio  is  there- 
fore absurd ;  but  I  conceive  it  is  fairly  to  be  deduced,  from  a 
thorough  examination  of  the  circumstances,  that  Scipio,  by  his 
splendid  coup  de  main  against  Carthagena  in  545,  rendered 
Hasdrubal's  march  on  Italy  impossible  for  that  year ;  and  that 
by  the  extreme  celerity  of  his  descent  from  Tarragona  north  of 
the  Ebro,  to  Andujar  on  the  lower  Guadalquivir,  in  the  Spring 
of  546,  he  prevented  the  concentration  of  the  Punic  forces,  and 
compelled  Hasdrubal  to  set  forth  on  his  perilous  expedition 
without  Mago's  new  levies,  and  without  the  invincible  Numi- 
dian  horse,  whom  he  had  so  long  and  anxiously  awaited,  as  the 
most  important  arm  of  his  service. 

If,  therefore,  this  were  the  case — and  the  fact,  that  in  Has- 
drubal's  fatal  action  on  the  Metaurus  no  mention  is  made  of  his 
African  horse,  goes  far  to  prove  it — the  Roman  leader  had 
already  won  enough  of  glory,  perhaps  acquired  the  right  of 
being  styled  the  savior  of  Rome. 

For,  had  it  been  possible  to  Hasdrubal  to  create  a  diversion  in 
the  North  of  Italy,  previous  to  the  surrender  of  Tarentum,  and 
at  the  moment  when  the  twelve  colonies  fell  off  from  Rome,  it 


90  rUBLlUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

would  have  produced  a  crisis  most  fearful  if  not  fatal ;  and  if,  in 
the  following  year,  his  w^ant  of  Numidian  horse  prevented  him 
from  opening  up  communications  with  his  brother,  and  ulti- 
mately lost  him  his  battle  on  the  Metaurus,  he  who  caused  that 
want,  contributed  no  less  than  Claudius  Nero,  by  his  marvellous 
Itahan  forced-march,  to  the  ultimate  downfall  of  Hannibal. 

In  the  meantime,  on  HasdrubaPs  evacuation  of  his  lines  at 
Baecula,  Scipio  had  occupied  them ;  and  lay  there  calmly  on  the 
defensive,  observing  the  operations  of  Mago  and  Hasdrubal 
Gisco,  who  had  now,  when  it  was  too  late,  come  up  in  force 
against  him. 

From  this  strong  post,  he  had  sent  detachments  to  guard  the 
lower  passes  of  the  Pyrenees,  so  far  northward,  j^erhaps,  as  to 
the  valleys  of  the  Aran  above  Lerida,  and  eastward  to  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean  above  Perpignan.  These  watchers 
sat  in  vain,  ho\Never,  on  their  lofty  stations,  while  he  for  whom 
they  looked  was  toiling  through  unsuspected  defiles,  far  to  the 
westward,  and  making  his  way,  through  the  dark  forests  and 
morasses  of  central  Gaul,  to  descend  upon  the  Rhone,  and  scale 
the  Alps,  "  far  inland,  where  the  river  was  unknown  even  to  the 
Roman  tradei-s  of  Massilia." 

Soon  after  this,  Scipio  felt  himself  so  strong  in  the  ascen- 
dancy he  had  gained  over  the  barbarians — who  would  have 
made  him  their  king,  even  as  they  had  recognized  for  such  the 
first  Hasdrubal,  Hamilcar's  son-in-law  and  founder  of  New 
Carthage — that  he  drafted  ten  thousand  infantry,  and  a  thou- 
sand hoi*se,  all  picked  men,  part  Roman  veterans,  part  Spanish 
and  Gauhsh  allies,  from  his  army,  whom  he  countermarched  to 
Tarragona.  Thence  they  took  ship*  for  Etruria,  to  co-operate 
with  the  consular  and  praetorian  armies  already  there,  in  the 
destruction  of  this  new  and  formidable  enemy. 

So  well  aware  were  the  Carthaginian  leaders  in  Spain  of  the 
^  Livy  XXVII.  38. 


hasdrubal's  retreat.  91 

extraordinary  power  and  fascination  which  Scipio  had  now 
gained,  and  still  exercised,  over  the  Spanish  mind,  that  they  not 
only  ventured  not  to  make  any  attempt  on  his  lines  with  their 
dispirited  Africans  and  half-disaffected  Spaniards,  but  scarcely 
even  trusted  their  native  troops  within  the  sphere  of  his  influence, 
which  spread  through  the  barbarians  like  a  contagion. 

The  secret  of  this  wonderful  power  of  fascination,  Arnold  thus 
eloquently  explains  :  "  Everything  in  him,"*  he  says,  "  was  at 
once  attractive  and  imposing ;  his  youth,  and  the  mingled 
beauty  and  majesty  of  his  aspect ;  his  humanity  and  courtesy  to 
the  Spanish  hostages  and  to  their  friends :  his  abihty  and 
energy  at  the  head  of  his  army.  Above  all,  there  was  mani- 
fested in  him  that  consciousness  of  greatness,  and  that  spirit,  at 
once  ardent,  lofty,  and  profound,  which  naturally  bows  the 
hearts  and  minds  of  ordinary  men,  not  to  obedience  only  and 
respect,  but  to  admiration  and  almost  to  worship." 

To  this,  all  of  which  is  doubtless  true,  may  be  added,  that  his 
pretensions  to  wisdom  and  ability  greater  than  human,  his  super- 
natural visions  and  communications  with  the  gods,  which  had 
of  course  spread  far  and  wide  among  the  superstitious  Celts  and 
Celtiberians,  naturally  prone  to  mysticism,  to  the  ghostly  and 
the  superhuman,  would  of  course  obtain  full  credence,  and 
command  implicit  reverence  among  them. 

So  manifest  was  this  leaning  of  the  Spaniards  toward  the 
youthful  Roman,  esjDecially  after  he  had  sent  back  unransomed 
to  Massinissa  his  nephew,  Massiva,  taken  at  Bsecula,  that  the 
Punic  leaders  determined  immediately  to  remove  all  their  bar- 
barians beyond  the  reach  of  his  contact.  Mago  surrendered  his 
command  to  Hasdrubal,  who  fell  back  at  once,  without  fighting,  to 
the  frontiei*s  of  Lusitania,  beyond  the  Tagus,  and  going  in  person 
to  the  Balearic  Isles,  Majorca,  Minorca,  and  Ivica,  renowned  for 
their  incomparable  slingers,  proceeded  there  to  raise  large 
*  Arnold,  Hist.  Rom.  II.  463. 


92  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

reinforcements  of  hardier  barbarians,  who  had  never  heard  of 
Rome,  or  heard  of  her  only  to  detest  her  very  name. 

The  cities  were  all  strongly  garrisoned,  each  by  each,  as  Has- 
drubal  fell  back  ;  and  Massinissa  was  alone  left  in  the  field,  with 
three  thousand  incomparable  Numidian  horse,  to  which  the 
Romans  had  nothing  to  oppose,  under  ordei-s  to  relieve  all 
friends  wherever  attacked  or  threatened  by  the  enemy,  to  skirr 
the  country  on  all  sides  and  devastate  with  fire  and  the  sword 
all  districts  which  had  fallen  off  from  their  fidelity  to  Carthage. 

Thus  ended  the  second  campaign  of  Scipio  in  Spain ;  in 
which,  by  again  anticipating  the  Carthaginians,  and  assuming 
the  initiative  before  they  had  concentrated  their  forces,  or  com- 
bined a  plan  of  operation,  he  deprived  Hasdrubal  of  a  very 
effective  portion  of  his  forces,  thus  materfally  contributing  to  his 
defeat  in  Italy,  if  he  could  not  prevent  his  march  thither.  So 
completely  also  did  he  paralyze  the  movements,  and  demorahze 
the  armies  of  that  general's  successors,  that  he  w^as  enabled 
to  send  most  important  succors  at  the  very  point  of  time  to 
Etruria,  without  weakening  himself  or  endangering  his  own  posi- 
tion. 

It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  after  being  surprised,  as 
they  surely  were  in  the  first  instance,  the  Punic  chiefs  displayed 
rare  abihty  in  recovering  themselves  from  their  dilemma,  and 
in  enforcing  on  Scipio  an  inactivity,  which  was  more  necessary 
to  themselves  than  to  him,  until  they  should  restore  the  morale 
of  their  troops,  collect  new  levies  on  whom  they  could  better 
rely,  and  recommence  the  war  under,  perhaps,  better  auspices. 

The  whole  strategy  of  Hasdrubal  Barca  in  this  campaign, 
and  in  his  advance  far  toward  the  heart  of  Italy,  is  beyond  all 
praise ;  nor  can  it  be  disputed  that,  had  Scipio  given  him  the 
leisure  to  carry  with  him  Mago's  new  Spanish  levies  and  Mas- 
sinissa's  wild  Numidians,  the  result  of  the  year's  operations, 
perhaps  of  the  whole  war,  might  have  been  vastly  diflferent. 


HANNO  S    DEFEAT.  98 

In  the  beginning  of  the  547th  year  of  Rome,  and  of  Scipio's 
third  campaign,  while  Hasdrubal  Gisco  yet  lay  at  Cadiz,  and 
the  Romans  were  still  in  winter-quarters  within  the  Ebro,  a  new 
General  was  dispatched  from  Carthage,  with  reinforcements,  to 
supply  the  place  of  the  force  carried  into  Italy  by  Hasdrubal 
Barca  ;  and  to  attempt,  if  he  might  do  so,  to  raise  the  Spaniards 
of  the  interior  against  the  Romans. 

It  would  seem,  that,  in  the  fii-st  instance,  Scipio  was  in 
some  sort  surprised  ;  for  Hanno  having  landed,  as  it  would  ap- 
pear, without  the  fact  of  his  arrival  being  known,  contrived  to 
penetrate  into  Celtiberia,  now  Arragon,  nearly  in  the  centre  of 
Spain,  where  he  effected  his  junction  with  Mago,  who  had  returned 
from  the  Balearic  Islands,  and  at  a  very  early  period  levied  a 
considerable  body  of  raw  troops.  The  information,  that  a  new 
Carthaginian  army  was  forming  in  the  heart  of  Spain,  with  in- 
tent to  operate  against  his  right  flank  and  rear,  in  the  event  of 
his  moving  southward  against  Hasdrubal  Gisco,  was  brought  to 
the  proconsul  by  some  Spanish  deserters,  just  in  time  that  ho 
might  anticipate  and  avert  the  danger. 

Perceiving  at  once  the  fatal  consequences,  which  would  arise 
from  his  allowing  the  Punic  leaders  leisure  to  organize  and  dis- 
cipline a  force  in  so  central  a  position,  Scipio  lost  not  a  moment 
of  time.  Acting  with  all  his  wonted  decision  of  character,  he  at 
once  dispatched  Marcus  Silanus,  with  a  division  of  ten  thousand 
infantry  and  five  hundred  horse,  to  crush  the  movement  and 
anticipate  the  coming  peril. 

Following  the  example  of  his  superior,  and  marching  with 
such  speed  and  secresy  through  wild  crags  and  deep  cork  forests 
of  the  difficult  Celtiberian  country,  that  he  outstripped  not  only 
all  direct  tidings,  but  all  rumors  of  his  advance,  Silanus  came 
upon  the  enemy,  wholly  unprovided,  and  expecting  nothing  less 
than  action. 

They  occupied  two  camps  on  adjacent  eminences,  the  new 


94  PUELIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

Spanish  levies  under  Mago  to  the  left,  promiscuously  hutted  on 
the  open  hill-top — the  Carthaginians  and  Numidian  horse,  well 
entrenched  on  the  right,  under  Hanno."* 

Mago.  on  the  approach  of  the  Romans,  sallied  at  once  with 
his  whole  force,  which  could  not,  however,  sustain  for  a  moment 
the  sword-in-hand  charge  of  the  Roman  legionaries.  The  Nu- 
midians  and  Punic  veterans  came  pouring  down  from  the  forti- 
fied camp  to  the  rescue  ;  and  these,  seeing  the  fortunes  of  the 
day  adverse,  and  unwiUing  to  sacrifice  the  nucleus  and  flower  of 
the  army  in  a  vain  attempt  to  cover  allies  so  unsteady,  Mago 
at  once  carried  off"  unbroken,  and  preserved  them  for  a  future 
conflict.  Hanno,  less  fortunate,  having  taken  command  of  the 
broken  Celtiberians  who  had  retired  to  a  strong  knoll,  while  en- 
deavoring to  retrieve  the  day,f  was  treasonably  surrendered  to 
the  Romans  by  his  own  fickle  barbarians,  not,  it  would  seem, 
without  something  strongly  savoring  of  treachery  on  the  part 
of  Silanus. 

All  the  new  Spanish  levies  dispersed  at  once  into  their  native 
fastnesses  of  rock  and  wilderness,  not  easily  or  soon  to  be  again 
collected  under  the  Carthaginian  standards  ;  and  by  this  single 
blow  the  fate  of  the  campaign  was  decided ;  for  the  Carthagi- 
nians had  no  longer  any  force  on  foot  capable  of  encountering  the 
Romans  in  the  field,  unless  it  were  that  of  Hasdrubal  Gisco,  which 
for  some  cause,  unknown  to  us,  was  not  available. 

The  Punic  leaders  thereupon  determined,  with  true  soldierly 
prudence,  to  risk  no  decisive  actions,  which  would  probably  be 
fatal  to  themselves,  but  to  convert  the  war  into  one  of  sieges,  on 
the  Roman  part,  and  thus  indefinitely  protract  it.  For  indeed, 
by  this  method,  considering  the  proverbial  stubbornness  of  tena- 
city and  desperate  valor  with  which  Spaniards  have  in  all  ages  held 
out  in  places  most  untenable,  they  might  well  hope  to  weary  out 
even  Roman  energy  and  daring. 

*  Livy,  xxviii.  2.  f  Appian,  vi.  31. 


CAPTURE    OF    ORINGIS.  95 

But  the  chief  to  whom  they  were  opposed,  though  on  the 
success  of  Silanus  he  had  resolved  on  assuming  a  vigorous  offen- 
sive, and  striking  a  blow  at  Hasdrubal  Gisco,  who  lay  far  beyond 
Andalusia  and  the  valle}^  of  the  Guadalquiver,  was  far  too  poli- 
tic to  engage  his  victorious  army  in  a  series  of  harassing  and 
useless  operations  against  petty  walled  towns  and  hill-forts, 
which,  he  well  knew,  must  surrender  instantly  in  consequence 
of  one  more  victorious  battle. 

So  soon,  therefore,  as  he  ascertained  that  the  enemy,  after  pro- 
visioning and  garrisoning  every  place  capable  of  resistance,  had 
retreated  at  his  leisure,  with  all  his  powers,  and  concentrated 
them  within  the  powerful  fortifications  of  Cadiz,  Scipio  deferred 
all  active  operations  to  the  ensuing  season,  withdrew  the  bulk 
of  his  army,  and  retired  to  near  Carthage,  and  thence  with  all 
his  prisonei*s  to  head-quarters  at  Tan-agona. 

He  did  not,  however,  entirely  evacuate  the  valley  of  the 
Guadalquiver,  or  permit  the  enemy  to  reoccupy  that  already 
twice-conquered  district ;  but  detached  his  brother,  Lucius  Scipio, 
with  ten  thousand  foot  and  a  thousand  horse,  to  make  himself 
master  of  Oringis,  a  strong  and  important  town,  situate  in  a  very 
fertile  region,  and  commanding  the  site  of  the  silver  mines.  It 
had  been  much  used  by  Hasdrubal  as  a  base  for  his  operations 
against  the  inland  tribes  of  central  Spain. 

This  place  Lucius  surrounded  with  lines  of  circumvallation  and 
contravallation ;  and  then  assaulted  it  so  vigorously  by  escalade, 
that,  although  the  first  storming  parties  were  beaten  back 
from  the  ramparts  with  severe  slaughter,  on  the  second  on- 
slaught the  townsmen  fled  in  a  panic  from  the  walls,  and  the 
Punic  garrison,  supposing  themselves  betrayed,  drew  oflf  and  re- 
tired to  the  citadel.  That  movement  led  the  Spaniards,  in  their 
turn,  to  impute  treachery  to  their  alKes  ;  and  in  their  anxiety  to 
obtain  terms,  before  the  city  should  be  won,  they  flung  away 
their  ofiensive   weapons,   threw    open    one    of  the    gates,  and 


96  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS  SCIPIO. 

streamed  out  in  a  tumultuous  crowd,  showing  their  unarmed  right 
hands,  though  still  covering  themselves  with  their  shields,  and  cry- 
ing to  the  enemy  for  quarter.  Naturally  enough,  the  Romans  mis- 
took so  turbulent  and  precipitate  a  surrender  for  a  sortie  in  force, 
and  charging  home  with  their  broadswords  drove  the  fugitives 
back,  massacring  them  unresisted,  and  entered  the  gate  with  them 
pell-mell.  For  some  time  longer  a  horrible  carnage  prevailed 
through  the  streets,  but  as  the  other  gates  were  hewn  down 
from  within  with  axes,  a  strong  body  of  hoi-se  and  the  triarii  of 
the  reserve  marched  in,  and  occupied  the  forum,  when  the  offi- 
ceis,  learning  the  true  state  of  the  facts,  quickly  restored  order, 
received  all  to  mercy  who  surrendered,  and  put  a  stop  to  the 
pillaging  and  confusion. 

The  Carthaginian  garrison  laid  down  its  arms  on  the  fii*8t 
summons,  and  Lucius  Scipio,  adhering  to  the  wise  policy  of  his 
brother,  restored  the  city  and  all  that  it  contained,  together  with 
their  personal  freedom,  to  the  Spanish  citizens. 

Of  this  exploit  Publius  Scipio  affected  to  speak,  anxious  to 
gratify  his  elder  brother  who  served  under  him,  as  not  inferior 
to  his  own  at  the  storming  of  New  Carthage,  though  in  truth 
there  was  no  similarity  between  them,  the  capture  of  Oringis  be- 
ing the  result  of  a  mere  accident ;  and  honored  him  personally,  as 
he  had  previously  honored  Caius  Laehus,  by  sending  him  with 
dispatches  to  Rome,  in  charge  of  Hanno  and  the  trophies  of  vic- 
tory. This  done  he  went  into  winter-quarters,  as  usual,  at  Tar- 
ragona. 

It  is  probable  that  during  the  period  of  inactivity,  while  he 
lay  on  his  arms  within  the  Ebro,  the  tidings  of  HasdrubaPs  de- 
feat and  death  on  the  banks  of  the  Metaurus,  and  the  rehef  of 
Rome's  most  urgent  apprehensions,  reached  him  ;  and  it  may  be 
taken  for  granted,  though  we  no  where  find  it  distinctly  stated, 
that,  this  imminent  peril  being  fortunately  overpassed,  the  large 
detachments  which  Scipio  had  sent  home  from  Tarragona  by 


COMPARISON    OF    FORCES.  9*7 

sea  in  the  preceding  year,  to  cooperate  in  the  defence  of  Rome, 
were  now  restored  to  him.  At  all  events,  we  find  him  in  suffi- 
cient force  at  an  early  season  of  the  following  year  to  take  the 
field,  and  commence  operations  with  greater  vigor  than  he  had 
previously  exerted. 

Many  arguments  would  suggest  themselves  why  he  should 
strenuously  press  the  war.  Nero,  whom  he  had  supei-seded  in 
his  present  command,  had  performed  the  great  achievement  and 
gained  the  only  great  renown  which  had  fallen  to  any  Roman 
General  during  the  war ;  if,  therefore,  Scipio  would  still  hve  in 
the  mouths  of  his  countrymen,  he  too  must  strike  such  a  blow 
as  should  leave  as  bright  a  mark  on  the  page  of  history,  as  the 
grand  forced  march  and  decisive  victory  of  his  rival. 

The  Carthaginian  leaders,  Hasdrubal  Gisco,  and  Hannibal's 
youngest  brother,  Mago,  had  likewise  drawn  together,  whether  by 
reinforcements  from  Africa  or  by  Spanish  levies,  does  not  appear, 
a  very  formidable  army,  and  were  no  less  willing  than  their  an- 
tagonist to  risk  a  battle. 

Their  forces  are  stated  by  Polybius*  and  Appian|  to  have 
amounted  to  seventy  thousand  foot,  with  four  or  five  thousand 
horse  and  two  and  thirty  elephants  ;  against  which  Scipio,  after 
having  mustered  all  his  allies,  and  gained  over  some  auxiliaries 
from  a  Spanish  prince,  Colchas  or  Colichas  by  name,  could  bring 
no  more  than  forty-five  thousand  infantry  with  three  thousand 
horse. 

The  Carthaginians  lay  at  a  town  variously  called  Ilipa  and 
Silpia,  the  locality  or  true  name  of  which  cannot  readily  be  as- 
certained ;  which  seems,  however,  to  have  commanded  the  min- 
ing districts  and  not  to  have  been  very  far  distant  from  Bsecula, 
the  scene  of  their  unsuccessful  operations  of  the  previous  cam- 
paign. They  were  advantageously  posted  along  the  lower  and 
last  ridges  of  the  hill  country,  with  open  plains  in  their  front. 
*  Polyb.  xi.  20.  t  Appian,  vi.  25. 

5 


98  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

On  the  approach  of  Scipio,  the  Carthaginian  cavahy  and  Mas- 
sinissa's  Numidian  horse  sallied  out  and  made  a  vigorous  attack 
on  the  Romans,  as  they  were  engaged  in  entrenching  themselves ; 
nor  was  it  without  some  sharp  fighting,  and  ultimately  calling 
out  the  legionary  foot,  that  they  were  repulsed. 

For  several  days,  the  armies  faced  each  other  in  battle  array ; 
Hasdrubal  leading  out  first  in  the  morning,  and  usually  recall- 
ing his  men  the  first  at  evening,  while  the  hght  troops  and 
horse  skirmished  sharply  in  the  interval  between  the  hues,  with 
httle  result  and  no  marked  superiority. 

During  the  whole  of  these  indecisive  days,  the  two  armies 
were  regulaj-ly  arrayed  in  the  same  manner,  with  the  native  Ro- 
man and  Carthaginian  foot  forming  the  centres,  and  the  Spanish 
allies  on  the  wings ;  but  such  was  not  the  order  in  which  Scipio 
had  determined  to  fight. 

It  was  his  plan  on  the  day  of  battle  to  throw  the  whole 
weight  of  his  unrivalled  Roman  legionaries  against  the  Spaniards 
of  the  Punic  army ;  and  to  retire  his  own  allies,  so  as  to  keep 
the  Carthaginian  veterans  out  of  action,  until  the  day  should  be 
far  spent  and  the  decisive  impression  made. 

This  is  unquestionably  his  finest  battle,  and  that  on  which  his 
reputation  must  depend  as  a  tactician  ;  and  it  is  not  to  be  denied 
that  the  plan  itself  was  masterly,  that  it  was  admirably  executed, 
and  that  the  sagacity  and  pei-severance  with  which  the  Roman 
General  availed  himself  of  every  point  of  advantage,  can  scarce 
be  praised  too  highly.     Desiring  to  turn  against  Hasdrubal  the 

r 

same  advantage  which  Hannibal  had  so  successfully  adopted 
against  his  father,  Scipio  gave  notice  to  the  tribunes  of  the  sol- 
diers that  he  meant  to  deliver  battle  on  the  following  day,  and 
made  the  men  arm  themselves  betimes  and  breakfast  well  at  an 
unusually  early  hour.  This  done,  he  advanced  into  the  plain, 
leaving  his  centre,  contrary  wise  to  his  order  of  battle  on  the  pre- 
vious days,  composed  of  his  Spanish  allies  and  auxiliaries,  and  his 


PLAN    OF    BATTLE.  99 

wings  formed  of  the  Roman  and  Latin  legions.  His  front  he 
covered  with  a  cloud  of  skirmishei-s,  by  which  he  masked  this 
alteration  of  his  battle,  and  with  all  his  native  and  allied  horse, 
whom  he  launched  to  the  very  ditches  and  gates  of  Hasdrubal's 
camp  before  the  sun  had  yet  risen.  The  Carthaginian 
skirmishei-s,  who  poured  out  to  meet  them,  were  worsted  and 
driven  in  with  great  confusion  and  slaughter ;  and  Hasdrubal, 
aroused  from  his  bed  by  the  clamor,  rushed  out  of  his  tent  to 
behold  the  plains  swarming  with  the  enemy's  light  troops,  and 
their  cavalry  wheeling  to  and  fro  cutting  to  pieces  the  dispersed 
and  scattered  bands,  whose  inferior  numbei-s  they  had  easily 
overpowered ;  while  the  first  rays  of  the  rising  sun  showed  him 
the  whole  Roman  army  in  array,  advancing  in  force,  as  if  to 
the  attack  of  his  entrenchments. 

Without  waiting  to  let  his  men  breakfast,  and  scarcely  giving 
them  time  to  arm  themselves  sufficiently,  enraged  at  finding 
himself  thus  insulted  in  his  camp,  he  at  once  led  out  his  forces ; 
and  arraying  them,  as  on  the  former  days,  either  that  he  had  not 
noticed  the  change  in  Scipio's  formation,  or  that  he  did  not  ap- 
prehend its  importance,  he  set  his  Spaniards  in  opposition  to  the 
Romans  on  either  wings,  while  his  Carthaginians  were  opposed 
in  the  centre  to  the  Spanish  allies. 

A  long  interval  succeeded  before  the  main  battles  joined,  oc- 
cupied as  on  the  previous  days  by  fierce  and  eager  skirmishing ; 
which  was,  however,  now  far  more  continuous  and  better  sus- 
tained than  heretofore,  and  with  nearly  equal  detriment  and 
success  on  both  sides,  either  party  in  turn  prevailing  and  driv- 
ing in  the  other,  to  be  again  repulsed,  until  rallied  upon  the 
masses  of  its  own  infantry. 

It  would  seem  that  the  Carthaginians,  for  some  reason,  proba- 
bly from  indecision,  and  perhaps  depressed  by  the  ill  success  of 
the  past' campaigns,  did  not  care  to  assume  the  initiative  ;  and  it 
was  Scipio's  game  to  defer,  as  long  as  possible,  the  moment  of 


100  PUBLILS    CORNELIUS  SCiriO. 

the  decisive  struggle,  in  order  that  the  effects  of  the  toil  and 
heat  of  the  day  might  tell  to  the  utmost  on  the  unfed  army  of 
Hasdrubal,  which  would  necessarily  wax  faint  and  weary  during 
a  long  day,  under  circumstances  so  untoward.  When  the  day, 
however,  was  far  advanced,  past  noon,  Scipio  called  in  his  horse 
and  skirmishers,  receiving  them  between  the  intervals  of  his 
maniples,  and  prepared  for  the  execution  of  the  grand  manoeu- 
vre by  which  he  hoped  to  decide  the  fate  of  the  day. 

To  this  end  he  formed  three  troops  of  picked  horsemen  and 
three  cohorts  of  the  flower  of  his  light  infantry,  who  had  been 
kept  in  reserve  up  to  this  moment,  in  front  of  either  of  his  wings 
and  some  little  space  without  them,  to  the  right  and  left.  This 
done,  and  the  remainder  of  the  horse  and  voltigeurs  being  held 
in  hand  behind  his  wings,  he  sent  orders  to  Marcius  and  LseHus 
on  his  extreme  left,  ordering  them  to  commence  the  action,  and 
at  the  same  instant  extending  the  light  troops,  in  advance,  so 
as  to  outflank  and  overlap  the  Spaniards,  he  wheeled  up  his  le- 
gionaiies  from  line  info  column,  and  led  at  a  run,  obliquing  from 
the  right  leftward,  full  against  the  Carthaginian  left. 

The  instant  when  the  clang  of  his  trumpets  announced  that 
close  and  deadly  onset,  his  lieutenants  on  the  left  performed 
the  same  manoeuvre,  overflanking  the  Punic  right  and  ob- 
liquing to  the  right  hand,  with  the  deadly  volley  of  strongly- 
hurled  pila,  followed  by  the  onslaught  of  the  terrible  Roman 
Bword. 

Meantime,  the  Spaniards  of  the  centre,  merely  advanced,  and 
kept  moving,  sufficiently  to  preserve  their  connection  with  the 
wings,  and  admit  no  gap  or  break  in  their  order,  into  which  the 
enemy  might  drive  an  entering  wedge;  but  keeping  themselves 
so  far  retired,  as  to  give  the  Carthaginian  centre,  composed  of 
the  choice  Africans  who  had  never  been  beaten  in  a  fair  field, 
no  occasion  to  assail  them. 

These  brave  men,  meanwhile,  could  not  advance  or  strike  a 


THE    PUNIC    ELEPHANTS.  101 

blow  ;  for  the  forces  on  either  flank,  even  while  they  stood  sta- 
tionary, were  gradually  yielding  ground,  as  overpowered  by  une- 
qual odds,  Romans  against  barbarians,  veterans  against  new 
levies,  perfectly  armed  and  practised  soldiers  against  tumultuary 
troops,  shepherds  and  hunters — men  full  fed  against  men  fiist- 
ing.  Had  they  advanced,  they  had  exposed  their  own  flanks 
naked  to  the  Romans,  who  were  already  shattering  the  faint 
auxiliaries  on  either  reeling  wing.  Had  they  attempted  to 
wheel  to  the  relief  of  their  disordered  wings,  they  had  left  a 
gap  in  their  mid  hues,  into  which  the  Spaniards  of  the  Roman 
centre  would  have  broken  hke  an  entered  flood. 

Ere  long,  they  were  compelled,  in  order  to  preserve  their  con- 
nection with  their  wings,  borne  back  by  the  unequal  pressure, 
to  give  ground  themselves  ;  but  they  did  so,  not  as  men  brol;en 
or  defeated,  but  orderly,  steadily,  and  at  command. 

Then  at  length,  as  utterly  overmatched  and  beaten,  the  Span- 
iards on  either  flank  gave  way,  the  Roman-Spaniards  of  the  cen- 
tre charged. 

All  the  Punic  elephants  had  become  congregated,  owing  to 
the  circular  inward  sweep  of  the  Roman  wings,  in  front  of  the 
Carthaginian  centre,  and  these  huge  unwieldy  monsters  did,  as 
usual,  nearly  equal  mischief  to  their  enemies  and  their  masters. 
Many  were  driven  back  upon  the  African  foot,  whom  they  dis- 
ordered, and  some  of  whom  they  trod  under  foot — many  passed 
through  the  Spaniards  with  more  or  less  destruction  in  their 
ranks. 

The  veteran  Africans  fought,  as  they  always  had  fought,  like 
men  used  to  conquer ;  their  auxiharies  on  either  flank  had  not 
been  beaten  without  stubborn  and  gallant  resistance,  or  without 
inevitable  cause,  but  they  were  now  utterly  discomfitted  and 
scarcely  holding  together,  when  the  Roman  horse,  rested  and  re- 
cruited by  repose,  swung  out  to  the  right  and  left  from  the  rear 
of  the  Roman  wings,  plunged  into  their  disoi'dered  masses,  and 


102  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

fleshed  their  thirsty  swords  in  caroage,  avenging  and  almost 
equalling  that  of  Cannae. 

The  legionaries  of  the  Roman  foot,  now  victorious  on  both 
flanks,  and  reheved  from  the  necessity  of  pursuit  by  the  zeal  of 
their  own  excited  cavalry,  having  no  enemy  directly  in  their 
front,  pressed  in  on  the  flanks  of  the  Punic  centre,  which  was 
already  struggling  against  the  Hispano-Romans  in  front,  and 
speedily  converted  the  retreat  into  a  route,  the  defeat  into  a 
complete  disaster. 

The  Carthaginian  camp  was  not  far  distant,  yet  it  was  with 
difficulty  that  HasdrubaPs  men  gained  it,  and  mounted  in  show 
of  defence  on  the  ramparts.  The  Romans  advanced  to  assault 
the  works,  and  it  is  stated  by  Livy,  that  they  would  have  un- 
questionably carried  them  and  destroyed  the  whole  army  of  the 
enemy,  had  not  a  tremendous  thunder-storm  broken  out,  as  is 
not  uncommon  among  those  mountains  in  the  summer  heats, 
and  compelled  the  victors  to  desist  and  retire  to  their  own  en- 
trenchments, to  regain  which  they  had  some  difficulty,  o wing- 
to  their  exhaustion  and  the  fury  of  the  storm.  All  that  night 
the  Carthaginians  labored  incessant  among  the  rain,  in  spite  the 
thunders,  to  strengthen  their  works  and  defences,  expecting 
that  the  Romans  would  surely  attempt  to  storm  them  on  the 
morrow.  But  when  that  morrow  came,  their  auxiliaries  and 
allies  were  deserting  them  and  passing  over  to  the  enemy  by 
thousands  at  a  time,  Attas,  Prince  of  the  Turdetani,  or  Sevil- 
lans,  setting  the  example  of  defection,  and  surrendering  two 
strong  walled  towns,  with  their  Carthaginian  garrisons,  to  the 
Romans. 

To  prevent  the  spread  of  this  disaffection  and  the  dispersion 
of  bis  entire  forces,  Hasdrubal  judged  it  wisest  to  remove  the 
remnant  of  his  army  from  the  perilous  vicinity,  and  accordingly 
in  the  dead  of  the  following  night,  broke  from  his  position 
eilently,  and  d'jcamped,  leaving  his  fii'es  burning,  and  made  the 


GRAND    MANCEUVRE.  103 

best  of  Lis  way  toward  the  Guadal quiver,  seeking  to  interpose 
that  powerful  stream  between  himself  and  his  pursuers. 

This,  then,  was  the  famous  battle  of  Elinga,  Ilipa  or  Silpia, 
as  it  is  variously  written  by  Polybius,  Appian,  and  Livy,  which 
may  be  regarded  as  altogether  the  most  remarkable  of  Scipio's 
actions,  as  Cannae  was  the  finest  of  Hannibal's,  the  victory  be- 
ing in  both  cases  ascribable  to  scientific  principles  and  the  gen- 
eralship of  the  leaders,  and  scarcely,  even  in  a  secondary  degree, 
to  the  quality  of  the  troops  engaged. 

It  was  fought  on  the  principles  which  are  assumed  by  Napo- 
leon to  be  the  base  of  all  generalship.  It  was  dehvered  by  an 
army  greatly  inferior  on  the  whole,  yet  was  fought  so  that  the 
body  numerically  inferior  was  superior,  both  morally  and  physic- 
ally, on  the  points  where  it  was  engaged,  and  that  two-thirds  of 
the  defeated  force  were  in  fact  annihilated  before  the  remainder 
could  be  brought  into  action ;  and  that  remainder  was  necessa- 
rily destroyed  in  the  end  by  the  conversion  against  it  of  the  en- 
tire strength  of  the  enemy. 

It  was  in  some  sort,  directly  the  converse  of  Cannje  ;'*  the 
consequences  and  termination  being  identical,  though  tlie  move- 
ments which  led  to  that  result  were  reversed  in  the  mode  of 
fighting,  as  well  as  in  the  circumstances  of  the  engagement. 

In  both,  the  defeated  army  assumed  the  form  of  a  convex 
segment  of  a  circle,  while  the  victorious  forces  overlapped  it 
with  a  concave  exterior  semicircle,  and  finally  defeated  it  by  a 
great  general  charge  of  horse  and  foot  on  both  flanks. 

Here,  however,  the  resemblance  ends,  for  at  Cannae  the  at- 
tacking army  was  destroyed,  at  IHpa  it  conquered.  At  Cannae 
the  defeated  army  was  enveloped  in  consequence  of  the  forward 
rush  of  its  own  centre  into  the  midst  of  the  enemy,  while  at 
Ihpa  it  was  in  hke  manner  surrounded,  owing  to  the  retirement 

•*  Cann(s.     '•  Captains  of  the  Old  World/'  p.  359,  et  seq. 


104  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

of  the  enemy's  centre,  and  the  progression  of  its  victorious 
wings. 

It  is  the  very  battle  which  Napoleon  intended  to  fight  at 
Waterloo,  and  which  he  would  have  gained  on  that  celebrated 
field  had  he  succeeded  in  forcing  back  both  or  either  of  the 
British  wings,  before  the  arrival  of  the  Prussians  on  the  extreme 
left  toward  St.  Lambert,  and  the  grand  attack  of  the  Old  Guard 
on  the  centre ;  but  in  that  action  the  steadiness  of  the  British 
foot  prevailed,  and  the  wings,  instead  of  retrograding  under 
the  pressure,  had  actually  advanced,  so  as  to  envelop  the  enemy, 
instead  of  being  themselves  enveloped,  at  the  crisis  of  the  day. 

In  its  general  eflfects  and  influence  on  the  fate  of  the  cam- 
paign, and  indeed  of  the  war  on  the  Peninsula,  Ih'pa  was  to  the 
Carthaginians,  what  Vittoria  was  to  the  French  armies  in 
Spain,  the  virtual  cause  of  their  total  expulsion  from  the  Penin- 
sula, and  of  the  transfer  of  the  seat  of  war  into  their  own 
countries.  In  both  cases,  indeed,  the  struggle  was  protracted, 
far  more  boldly  and  vigorously  by  the  Gallic  than  by  the  Punic 
leaders,  but  in  neither  instance  was  the  issue  in  truth  doubtful 
or  the  end  beyond  the  reach  of  human  vision. 

It  is  stated  by  Appian,*  whose  account  of  the  action  differs 
considerably  fi'om  that  of  Poly  bins,  that  the 'loss  of  the  Cartha- 
ginian forces  amounted  to  fifteen  thousand  men,  while  that  of 
the  Romans  did  not  exceed  eight  hundred. 

On  the  following  morning  when  he  discovered  that  Hasdru- 
bal  had  decamped,  Scipio  hkewise  broke  up  from  his  position 
and  pursued  in  force,  and  that  with  such  vigor  and  activity,  that 
if  he  had  followed  directly  on  the  line  of  his  retreat  he  might 
easily  have  overtaken  his  rear.  It  was,  however,  judged  better 
to  strike  directly  across  the  country,  irrespective  of  the  Punic 
line  of  retreat,  so  as  to  interpose  between  Hasdrubal  and  the 
Guadalquiver,  and  thus  prevent  his  passing  that  great  river, 
'■•'■  Appian,  vi.  27. 


RETURN    TO    TARRAGONA.  105 

and  transferring  the  scene  of  operations  into  the  vicinity  of  Ca- 
diz and  the  southern  seaboard.  This  being  done,  and  a 
soldieiy  and  sound  measure  it  was  so  to  do,  Hasdrubal  was  cut 
oflF  from  liis  resources  and  forced  westward  to  the  Atlantic  coast, 
without  the  pillars  of  Hercules. 

So  soon  as  he  turned  in  this  direction  his  case  was  desperate,  in- 
deed, and  the  Roman  general  gave  him  no  occasion  to  recruit  the 
strength  or  spirit  of  the  army,  but  pressing  him  home  incessantly 
with  the  horee  and  light  troops  of  his  lefts  well  in  advance,  at  length 
brought  him  to  action  with  his  legions,  if  that  can  be  called  an 
action  which  was  httle  more  than  a  massacre,  a  slaughter  not  of 
soldiers  but  of  sheep. 

Six  thousand  men  only,  and  those  but  half  armed,  escaped  to 
some  bare  hills  near  the  coast,  which  they  fortified  as  best  they 
might,  and  where  they  were  besieged  in  form  by  Silanus,  with 
ten  thousand  foot  and  a  thottsand  horce,  whom  Scipio  detached 
for  that  purpose,  while  he  returned  in  person  to  Tarragona. 

In  a  few  days,  unable  to  make  any  effectual  defence  of  those 
bare  hills  without  magazines  or  resources,  and  both  weakened 
and  alarmed  by  daily  defections,  Hasdrubal  escaped  by  night  to 
his  ships  and  got  ofl'to  Cadiz,  whence  he  sent  back  his  squadron 
to  bring  ofi'  Mago,  who  joined  him  soon  after  in  that  city,  now 
the  last  foot  of  Spanish  soil  in  Carthaginian  occupation. 

The  rest  of  the  forces,  abandoned  by  their  leaders,  either  de- 
serted in  a  body  to  the  Romans,  or  breaking  up  into  small 
bands  dispersed  themselves  among  the  neighboring  towns,  and 
thenceforth  had  no  existence  as  an  army. 

Massinissa,  the  Numidian  leader,  hereupon,  considering  the 
cause  of  the  Carthaginians  hopeless,  and  foreseeing  the  ultimate 
success  of  the  Romans,  had  a  secret  interview  with  Silanus,  in 
which  he  made  overtures  to  Scipio.  These  led,  in  due  time,  to 
a  firm  alliance,  and  in  no  small  degree,  contributed  to  the  Ro- 
man victories  in  Africa,  and  to  the  fall  of  Carthage ;  and  an  un- 
5* 


106  rUBLlUS    CORNELIUS    SCII'IO. 

derstanding  being  effected,  the  prince  returned,  with  the  survi- 
vors of  his  countrymen  to  his  Numidian  deserts,  never  so  long 
as  his  hfe  endured  to  swerve  from  his  fidehty  to  his  new  aUies 
and  masters. 

Silanus  returned  to  Tarragona,  bringing  word  to  his  com- 
mander that  the  war  was  virtually  at  an  end,  and  that  "  no 
enemy  was  to  be  found  in  the  field  from  the  Pyrenees  to  the 
Pillars  of  Hercules  :"  *  and  therefore  Scipio,  sending  his  brother 
Lucius  to  Rome,  with  the  captives  and  trophies  of  his  victoiy,  to 
announce  the  completion  of  his  work,  proceeded  himself  to  Car- 
thagena,  there  to  organize  measures  for  transferring  the  war  into 
Africa,  which  henceforth  was  the  darling  project  of  his  pohcy. 

Much  of  what  follows  in  the  course  of  this  campaign  is  nearly 
unintelhgible,  Livy's  explanation  of  the  occurrences  being  wholly 
unsatisfactory,  and  the  conduct  of  Scipio  and  his  lieutenants  in- 
explicable on  any  of  the  known  rules  or  principles  of  strategy  or 
policy.  It  is  clear  that  he  must  have  considered  the  war 
at  an  end,  and  the  campaign  completed  at  a  blow,  when 
he  drew  off  his  entire  forces  to  the  north,  without,  so  far  as  it 
appears,  leaving  a  gari'ison  in  any  one  of  the  captured  cities,  or 
any  force  on  foot  to  observe  the  Carthaginians,  who  still  held 
the  important  and  powerful  sea-port  of  Cadiz,  with  a  division 
of  land  forces  and  a  naval  squadron. 

How  he  could  have  looked  upon  the  work  as  done,  so  long  as 
this  important  stronghold,  and  convenient  base  of  future  opera- 
tions remained  in  the  hands  of  an  active  and  enterprising  ene- 
my, it  is  difficult  to  understand.  And,  when  it  is  taken  into 
consideration  that  within  a  few  weeks  of  his  obviously  prema- 
ture withdrawal  of  his  forces  beyond  the  Ebro,  he  was  obliged 
by  a  general  rising  of  the  Spaniards,  excited  by  the  Punic  gar- 
risons of  the  towns  now  left  in  his  rear,  to  march  back  into  this 
very  region  and  to  undertake  several  difficult  sieges,  be^^ides 
*  Arnold,  ii.  467. 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN.  lOT 

fighting  a  pitehed  battle  against  the  barbanans,  it  is  not  easy  to 
avoid  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  he  committed  a  grave  mil- 
itajy  error  in  not  attempting  the  expulsion  of  Mago  from  Cadiz, 
and  so  ooncluding  the  war  by  one  stunning  stroke. 

There  must,  however,  have  existed,  I  think,  some  strong  rea- 
sons for  his  not  making  an  effort  in  this  direction,  so  evident 
must  it  have  been  that  Spain  could  never  be  considered  Roman,  or 
fairly  subjugated,  while  such  a  port  of  entrance  and  base  of  ope- 
rations as  Cadiz  was  left  to  the  enemy.  How  dangerous  a  sys- 
tem of  atttack  might  have  been  carried  on  from  this  place  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that,  from  it,  Mago  did  actually  attempt  a 
surpnse  of  Carthagena,  while  the  Roman  army  was  in  winter- 
quartei-s  behind  the  Ebro  ;  an  enterprise  which,  had  it  succeed- 
ed, would  have  replaced  affairs  as  at  the  commencement  of  the 
war,  and  left  all  the  work  to  be  done  again. 

We  must  suppose,  therefore,  that,  from  the  sti'ength  of  Ca- 
diz— and  how  strong  is  its  natural  position  is  proved  by  the 
heroical  siege  which  it  supported  against  the  French  army  in 
1810 — and  perhaps  from  his  want  of  sufficient  maritime  forces, 
his  squadron  having  been  principally  laid  up  and  the  men 
drafted  into  the  legions — he  felt  his  inabihty  to  conquer  it  by 
storm,  and  the  impossibility  of  blockading  it  while  the  sea  was 
open.  Reckoning,  also,  on  the  impotence  of  the  Carthaginian 
Government  to  aid  Mago  by  reinforcements  from  home,  and  the 
failure  of  that  general  to  keep  the  field,  he  probably  calculated 
that  an  invasion  of  Afnca  would  so  paralyze  the  whole  policy 
of  Carthage,  as  to  render  her  possession  of  this  solitary  fortress 
on  the  Atlantic  coast  of  Spain  a  matter  of  little  moment. 

In  view,  however,  of  all  that  followed,  the  serious  revolt  of 
the  Spaniards  under  Mandonius  and  Indibilis,  the  necessity  of 
besieging  and  storming  Illiturgi,  Castulo,  and  Astapa  a  few 
weeks  later  in  the  season,  places  in  the  very  heart  of  the  coun- 
try from  which  he  now  withdrew  as  completely  subjugated,  tho 


108  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

daring  attempt  of  Mago  on  Carthagena,  and  his  actual  invasion 
of  Italy,  where  he  maintained  himself  until  recalled  by  his 
countrymen  after  Scipio  had  landed  in  Africa,  T  cannot  but 
judge  this  retirement  of  the  Romans  to  Tarragona  as  a  mili- 
tary error ;  the  gravest,  perhaps  the  only  grave  one,  in  all  this 
general's  splendid  and  sound  career,  and  one  from  the  conse- 
quences of  which  his  good  fortune  had  as  much  to  do  in  defend- 
ing him,  as  either  his  judgment  or  his  conduct. 

It  was  at  this  period  of  the  war,  that  Scipio  undertook  an  en- 
terprise, which  with  all  its  details  savors  more  of  romance  than 
of  sober  history,  and  which,  had  it  not  been  justified  by  its  par- 
tial success,  would  have  been  pronounced  rash  and  indefensible. 

Desirous  of  securing  a  foothold  and  an  ally  on  the  African 
continent,  Scipio  had  sent  Caius  Laslius,  so  soon  as  the  army  re- 
turned to  Tarragona,  on  an  embassy  to  Syphax,  king  of  the 
Masssesyli,  the  most  powerful  of  the  native  princes,  with  the  hopes 
of  bringing  him  over  from  the  Carthaginians  to  a  Roman  alli- 
ance. Of  this,  he  returned,  giving  Scipio  some  hopes,  accompa- 
nied by  an  invitation  from  the  prince  to  the  Roman  general,  to 
visit  him  in  his  own  dominions. 

Scipio,  in  consequence,  had  the  audacity  to  cross  the  Mediter- 
ranean, swarming  with  Punic  cruisers — for  in  those  seas  at  least 
the  Carthaginian  force  was  superior — with  two  quinqueremes 
only,  the  line  of  battle-ships  of  that  day,  and  entered  the  royal 
port,  safely,  with  a  wind  so  fair  and  at  the  same  time  so  strong, 
that  he  came  into  the  harbor  within  a  very  short  period  after 
being  first  discovered  from  the  shore. 

To  this  circumstance  he  owed  his  safety,  and  Rome,  perhaps, 
her  subsequent  triumph  over  her  rival ;  for,  by  a  singular  coin- 
cidence, Hasdrubal  had  almost  simultaneously  crossed  over  from 
Cadiz,  with  seven  triremes,  and  was  at  that  time  lying  in  the 
African  harbor. 

When  the  two  Roman  ships  were  seen  approaching,  there 


NEUTIIAUIY    RESPECTED.  iC9 

was  a  mustering  and  embarking,  in  hot  haste,  and  with  a  clamor- 
ous tumult,  of  the  Carthaginian  crews ;  who  overmatched  the 
Eomans  so  greatly  that  the  capture  of  Scipio  was  certain,  could 
they  have  got  out  to  sea,  in  time  to  intercept  him. 

But  the  fortune  of  Rome  prevailed;  the  fresh  gale  bore  him 
into  port  so  rapidly  that  the  Punic  gallies  had  not  yet  weighed 
their  anchors  ;  and  once  entered,  the  law  of  nations,  the  respect 
for  a  neutral  harbor,  and,  probably,  the  fear  of  alienating  Sy- 
phax,  on  the  part  of  Hasdrubal,  prevented  violence. 

Of  this  singular  meeting,  amid  the  horrors  of  such  a  war, 
we,  alas  !  know  far  too  little.  Whether  the  crews  and  soldiery 
of  the  hostile  fleets  mingled,  in  that  moment  of  transitory 
peace,  in  friendly  intercourse,  exchanging  cups  and  shaking 
hands,  as  did  the  French  and  English  regiments  during  a  lull  of 
battle  on  the  bloody  day  of  Talavera,  or  whether  they  held 
aloof  in  stern  suspicion  and  resentment,  no  writer  has  revealed 
to  us.  The  rival  generals,  however,  met,  we  are  told,  -  at  the 
royal  board  of  Syphax,  and  both  reclined  in  amity  on  the  same 
couch — a  pleasing  and  graceful  incident  in  times  and  among 
usages  so  stormy  and  so  cruel,  when  no  friendly  intercourse  was 
deemed  possible  between  individuals  of  hostile  nations;  and 
when  the  doom  of  the  noblest  conquered  general  was  the 
scourge  and  the  fatal  axe. 

We  are  told  by  Livy,  following  Polybius,  the  personal  friend 
and  encomiast  of  Scipio,  that  this  general's  manners,  singu- 
larly combining  grace,  affability  and  dignity,  produced  such  an 
effect  on  Hasdrubal,  that  he  expressed  an  opinion,  that  "  the 
Roman  was  superior  in  the  arts  of  peace  to  himself  in  the  deeds 
of  war,  and  that,  such  was  his  fascination  in  winning  the  minds 
of  men,  he  was  sure  ultimately  to  succeed  with  Syphax."  We 
are  also  told  that  on  this  occasion  the  Masssesylian  king  entered 
into  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  Scipio,  who  thereupon  returned  re- 
joicing, after  a  stormy  passage  of  four  days,  to  New  Carthage. 


110  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

This  "  treaty,  however,  we  may  be  very  sure,"  shrewdly  ob- 
serves Dr.  Arnold,  "  was  not  one  of  those,  which  Polybius  found 
preserved  in  the  Capitol."  For  Syphax  fought,  in  fact,  to  the 
last  faithfully  for  Carthage,  and  lost  his  kingdom  and  his  bride 
by  his  adherence  to  her  cause.  How  likely  it  is,  that  Hasdru- 
bal  should  so  have  expressed  himself,  may  be  imagined  best, 
when  it  is  known  that  he,  at  this  very  time,  negotiated  the  mar- 
riage of  his  beautiful  daughter,  Sophonisba,  to  the  amorous 
prince,  whose  fidelity  he  thus  assured  to  his  own  countrymen. 

Such  are  the  difficulties,  to  which  the  historian  is  subjected 
by  the  want  of  responsible  authorities,  and  the  possession  only 
of  partial  one-sided  eulogies,  rather  than  narratives. 

Had  we  a  Carthaginian  relation  of  these  events,  we  should 
hear,  probably,  how  skilfully  the  wily  Africans  played  with  the 
arrogant  and  pompous  Roman  ;  and  how  they  laughed  in  their 
sleeves,  at  the  success  of  the  deceits  which  they  played  off  upon 
him. 

It  is  clear,  however,  that  on  Scipio's  return  to  Carthagena, 
how  sure  soever  he  might  have  felt  of  having  closed  the  war  be- 
fore his  departure,  and  secured  the  amity  of  Syphax  during  his 
absence,  he  found  affairs  in  so  ill  a  state,  that  he  was  obliged  to 
take  the  field  again  in  force,  and  retrace  his  steps  to  the  scene 
of  his  late  victories. 

Livy's  account  of  these  occurrences,  wherein  he  states  that  the 
object  of  this  march  and  countermarch,  covering. a  space  of 
nearly  fifteen  hundred  Roman  miles,  in  and  out,  was  merely  to 
punish  the  towns  of  IlHturgi,  Castulo,  and  Astapa,  for  defection 
and  acts  of  hostihty  to  the  Romans,  six  years  before,  is  simply 
an  absurdity. 

Had  it  been  desired  to  do  that,  it  would  have  been  done  im- 
mediately after  the  defeat  of  Hasdrubal  a.t  Ilipa,  when  the 
whole  Roman  and  allied  army  was  on  the  spot,  and  the  terror 
of  their  arms  at  the  hif^hest. 


FARTHER    MOVEMENTS.  1 1  1 

For  it  must  be  observed,  that  Scipio  actually  marched  through 
Castulo,  now  Cazlona,  and  passed  the  immediate  vicinity  of  IIU- 
turgi,  vi'hich  coincides  with  Andujar  or  Baylen,  on  his  way  to 
give  battle  to  the  Carthaginians  at  Ilipa  or  Ehnga,  which  could 
not  have  been  far  distant  from  the  modern  Alcolea  ;  and  pioba- 
bly  returned  by  the  same  route  to  Tarragona,  after  his  great 
victory,  when  probably  no  resistance  would  have  been  offered  to 
his  utmost  cruelty. 

To  make  this  argument  more  conclusive,  we  find  that  there 
was,  at  this  time,  a  Punic  garrison  in  Castulo,  which  though  it 
is  stated  to  have  fled  thither  after  the  defeat  at  Ilipa,  could 
scarcely  have  done  so ;  as  at  that  time  the  Roman  army  was 
interposed,  and  as  Scipio,  on  his  triumphant  return,  would  never 
have  left  it  unmolested,  had  it  been  then  occupied.  Probably 
this  garrison  was  sent  from  Cadiz  by  Mago,  to  reoccupy  the 
country  which  had  been  prematurely  evacuated ;  and  that  a 
general  defection  of  that  half-conquered  region  was  the  conse- 
quence of  the  movement,  and  the  cause  of  Scipio's  merciless  se- 
verity. 

If  he  had  erred  before,  however,  in  believing  his  conquest 
secure,  when  it  was  but  half  gained,  he  redeemed  his  error  by 
the  rapidity  and  brilliancy  with  which  he  overcame  space,  con- 
quered the  heats  of  a  Spanish  summer,  and  regained  his  jeop- 
arded acquisitions. 

After  a  desperate  defence,  and  two  or  three  disgraceful  repulses 
of  the  Roman  storming  parties,  which  compelled  Scipio  to  ex- 
pose his  own  person  in  the  van,  Illiturgi  was  taken  by  storm, 
and  mercilessly  sacked  after  the  cruel  Roman  custom.  Every 
living  creature,  human  or  brute,  without  distinction  of  age  or 
sex,  or  pity  even  for  helpless  infancy,  was  put  to  the  sword,  and 
the  town  was  reduced  to  ashes,  so  that  its  very  site  was  ren- 
dered doubtful. 

Castulo,  which  had  successfully  resisted  Silanus,  on  the  arrival 


112  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

of  the  commander-in-chief,  reeking  from  the  massacres  of  Illitur- 
gi,  surrendered  at  discretion,  but  received  little  mercy,  though 
not  dismantled  utterly  like  its  neighboring  city.  Again  Scipio 
retired  northward  ;  but,  this  time,  left  behind  him  Lucius  Mar- 
cius,  with  a  strong  detachment  to  preserve  peace,  and  receive 
the  other  towns  of  Andalusia  to  submission,  or  punish  them  for 
contumacy. 

How  he  performed  his  task,  may  be  judged  by  the  fate  of  Asta- 
pa;  the  inhabitants  of  which,  preferring  death  to  capture  by  the 
Romans,  left  a  body  of  fifty  men  with  orders  to  slaughter  all  their 
women  and  children  on  a  huge  funeral  pyre,  built  up  of  all  their  va- 
luables, in  the  market  place,  to  fire  the  city  and  perish  themselves 
in  the  flames — orders  which  were  but  too  faithfully  accomplished, 
while  the  remainder  of  the  citizens  saUied  out  to  sell  their 
lives  as  dearly  as  they  might,  and  fell  to  a  man,  sword  in 
hand.  Such  was  the  terror  inspired  by  the  consequences  of  a 
Roman  victory. 

His  work  thus  vigorously  prosecuted,  Silanus  returned  to  Tar- 
ragona; but  remained  there  only  a  few  days,  before  he  was 
again  dispatched  to  Cadiz  with  a  light  division,  Lselius  accom- 
panying him  with  a  squadron,  in  order  to  ascertain  if  some  se- 
cret offers  to  surrender  the  city,  with  the  Carthaginian  general 
and  garrison,  which  had  been  made  by  certain  of  the  Spanish 
citizens,  could  be  cari-ied  into  effect. 

Slightly  to  anticipate  the  course  of  events,  for  the  preservation 
of  the  unity  of  narrative,  it  may  here  be  stated,  that  the  plot 
was  discovered  by  Mago  before  the  arrival  of  the  Romane.  He 
had  sent  the  ringleaders  to  Carthage  under  the  charge  of  Ad- 
herbal,  with  a  quinquereme  and  a  squadron  of  eight  triremes,  and 
this  force,  by  accident,  encountered  Lselius  with  a  similar  divis- 
ion of  one  Roman  quinquereme  and  seven  triremes.  An  action 
took  place,  in  which  the  Punic  fine-of-battle-ship  was  taken  by 
the  Roman  frigates,  while  the  Roman  quinquereme  sunk  two 


ENCOUNTER    OF    SQUADRONS.  113 

and  took  a  third  of  the  Carthaginian  triremes,  Adherbal  scarcely 
escaping  with  the  remaining  five  ships  to  the  coast  of  Africa. 

In  the  mean  while,  Scipio  himself  had  been  stricken  with  one 
of  those  aguish  Spanish  fevers,  which  proved  so  much  more  fatal 
to  the  gallant  Peninsulars  of  England  than  either  the  bullets  or 
the  bayonets  of  their  daring  antagonists.  He  was  reduced  almost 
to  the  doors  of  death ;  it  was  even  reported  through  the  land 
that  he  was  dead. 

Then  was  it  seen  how  much,  in  Spain,  the  fortunes  of  Rome 
depended  on  the  name  of  Scipio,  and  how  httle  the  successes 
of  Scipio  on  the  power  or  name  of  Rome.  History,  at  this 
crisis,  is  worse  than  mute,  mutilated,  garbled,  and  partial,  to 
such  a  degree,  that  he  who  seeks  to  disentangle  its  ravelled 
threads,  is  bewildered.  But  the  facts,  truly  stated,  though 
wretchedly  interpreted  by  the  Latin  writers,  speak  for  them- 
selves, what  the  eulogists  of  Scipio  cannot  speak  intelligibly,  for 
the  distrust  in  which  we  hold  them. 

The  rumor  had  scarcely  gained  that  Scipio  was  dead,  ere 
it  appeared  what  was  the  influence  of  Scipio  and  what  of  Rome. 
There  was  no  Carthaginian  power  afoot  north-east  of  the  Gua- 
dalquiver,  yet  in  the  extreme  east,  between  the  Ebro  and  the 
Pyrenees,  the  very  chiefs,  Mandonius  and  Indibilis,  who  but  two 
or  three  years  before  would  have  had  Scipio  for  their  king, 
sprang  to  arms,  actuated  by  the  natural  wish  to  exterminate  the 
Romans.  Nor  was  this  all.  The  very  Roman  legion,  which 
acted  as  a  covering  force  to  keep  northern  Spain  from  revolt, 
and  was  posted  on  the  Sucro,  or  Xucar,  broke  into  open  muti- 
ny, drove  the  tribunes  from  the  camps,  and  gave  the  command, 
with  the  forces  and  imperium  of  consuls,  to  two  private  sol- 
diers, Caius  Attius  of  Umbria,  and  Caius  Albius  of  the  Latin 
colony  of  Cales. 

From  the  nationality  of  these  men  there  is  much  reason  to 
suppose  that  this  division  consisted,  not  of  Romans,  but  of  the 


114  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

Italian  and  Latin  allies — in  either  event  the  danger  was  as  im 
minent,  as  the  occurrence  was  rare. 

But  Scipio  was  neither  dead  nor  sleeping.  By  a  stroke  of 
the  deepest  dissimulation,  not  to  say  treachery,  he  got  posses- 
sion of  the  persons  of  the  ringleaders,  to  the  number  of  thirty- 
five  men,  he  brought  the  mutineei-s,  unarmed  and  at  his  mercy, 
into  the  compass  and  grasp  of  steady  troops,  -on  whom  he  could 
rely,  and  then  having  put  to  death  all  the  chiefs,  pardoned  the 
rest,  paid  them  all  arrears,  for  it  was  on  that  pretext  they  had 
mutinied,  and  at  once  led  them  against  the  rebellious  natives, 
north  of  the  Ebro. 

The  action  was  decisive,  though  not  without  severe  fighting 
and  heavy  loss,  no  less  than  twelve  hundred  of  the  Romans  and 
allies  being  slain,  and  three  thousand  wounded.*  There  is  no- 
thing, however,  in  its  details  worthy  of  notice.  The  barbarians 
were  drawn  into  a  deep  gorge,  whence  there  was  no  egress,  and 
there  slain,  not  like  sheep,  but  like  wolves  at  bay.  The  very 
completeness  of  the  catastrophe,  probably,  augmented  the  loss 
of  the  victoi-s.  Had  there  been  room  of  escape  for  fugitives, 
they  had  not  stood  to  their  arms  so  fiercely. 

With  this,  the  campaign  ended  ;  although,  after  the  Roman 
troops  were  in  winter-quarters,  Mago,  having  evacuated  Cadiz, 
attempted  Carthagena,  and  was  repulsed  by  its  garrison  alone.  Af- 
ter this  disappointment  he  took  possession  of  Minorca ;  wintered 
there  in  security  ;  thence  invaded  Liguria  in  the  following  spring ; 
made  a  diversion  much  more  formidable  than  that  of  his  brother 
Hasdrubal,  and  only  retired  from  Italy,  after  being  mortally 
wounded,  on  receiving  the  especial  orders  of  the  Senate,  to  aid 
in  the  defence  of  Africa,  against  the  already  too  successful  arras 
of  Scipio  and  the  now  Roman  Massinissa. 

For,  after  the  defeat  of  Indibilis,  Scipio  once  more  moved 
southward  into  the  vicinity  of  Cadiz,  for  no  other  purpose  than 
*  Livy,  xxviii.  34 


CLOSE    OF   THE    SPANISH   "WAR.  115 

to  hold  an  interview  with  the  Numidian  prince ;  and,  having 
gained  him  entirely,  so  powerful  was  the  fascination  of  his  man- 
nei-s  and  address,  arranged  with  him  a  private  treaty  of  amity 
and  alliance,  and  promised  him  to  cross  over,  as  soon  as  possible, 
into  Africa. 

With  the  departure  of  Mago  and  the  withdrawal  of  his  Afri- 
can forces  fi'om  Cadiz,  the  war  in  Spain  and  the  Carthaginian 
rule  in  that  country  were  indeed  ended.  The  last  stronghold  of 
that  wonderful  family  of  Barca,  after  being  pillaged,  even  to  the 
plunder  of  its  temples,  by  the  last  of  its  African  lords,  was  sur- 
rendered to  Lucius  Marcius,  and  Spain  thenceforth  became  a 
Roman  province. 

Incomprehensible  as  are  the  causes  of  the  Roman  movements 
during  this  singular  and  protracted  campaign,  the  energy  and 
ability  with  which  they  were  conducted,  are  above  all  praise  ; 
and,  for  indefatigable  activity  and  zeal,  Scipio  is  unsur- 
passed even  by  the  greatest  of  Roman  generals,  Julius 
Csesar.  Three  times,  between  the  opening  of  the  campaign  and 
the  final  retirement  of  the  Roman  army  into  its  winter-quarters, 
did  it  march  and  countermarch,  over  the  entire  length  of  the 
Peninsula,  from  the  Ebro,  within  a  hundred  miles  of  the  Py- 
renees, to  the  coasts  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  from  Tarragona  to 
Cadiz,  a  distance  of  eight  hundred  Roman  miles,  six  times  re- 
peated. Two  general  battles  of  great  magnitude  were.delivered ; 
one  army  pursued,  without  a  moment's  delay,  to  total  ruin ;  the 
other  completely  reduced  and  pacified.  Three  strong  fortresses 
were  taken  by  storm  ;  the  Carthaginian  Capital,  Cadiz,  was  ad- 
mitted to  surrender;  a  formidable  mutiny  was  quelled  with 
consummate  ability.  A  whole  country,  not  a  single  enemy  left 
within  its  borders,  rendered  submissive  to  the  authority  of  Rome, 
and  Carthage  stripped  of  her  last  foreign  colony  and  laid  open 
to  the  invasion  of  her  unrelenting  rival — these  were  the  trophies 
of  Scipio's  fifth  and  most  masterly  Spanish  campaign. 


116  rUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

His  rewards  were  the  Consulship  in  the  549th  year  of  Rome, 
the  205th  before  the  Christian  era  ;  Sicily  as  his  province,  the 
war  in  Africa  as  his  command,  the  battle  of  Zama  and  the 
consmnmation  of  the  second  Punic  war,  as  his  crowning  glory. 

Singular,  indeed,  are  the  coincidences  of  this  man's  career, 
even  to  the  number  of  his  campaigns,  the  style  of  his  strategy, 
his  fortunate  daring  in  the  assault  of  fortresses,  the  scene  of  his 
exploits  and  their  termination,  with  that  of  the  far  greater  man 
whose  departure,  full  of  years  and  honors,  England  is  yet  de- 
ploring— scarcely  less  striking  than  those  between  their  mighty 
antagonists,  Hannibal  and  Napoleon ;  but  of  this  hereafter. 
Hannibal's  last  campaign  in  Italy  had  opened,  Scipio's  first  in 
Africa  was  on  the  point  of  commencing,  and  the  long  contest  of 
the  rival  empires  was  soon  to  close  with  a  set  duel,  as  it  were,  of 
their  two  most  puissant  champions. 

At  this  time,  it  appears,  commenced  those  jealousies  and 
grudges,  which,  in  spite  of  his  eminent  services,  embittered  all 
the  future  life  of  this  great  man,  drove  him  into  voluntary  ex- 
ile, and  ultimately  left  his  ashes  in  a  foreign  tomb. 

It  is  not  unnatural,  that  great  jealousies  should  have  arisen 
against  the  young  conqueror,  among  the  older  and  less  success- 
ful generals,  and  among  these,  Quintius  Fabius  Maximus  was  his 
most  constant  and  inveterate  opponent.  But  it  is  evident,  that 
Scipio  conducted  himself  with  a  bold  and  boastful  spirit ;  insist- 
ed on  having  Africa  as  his  province ;  spoke  of  appealing  from 
the  Senate  to  the  people,  in  case  of  his  wishes  being  disregarded  ; 
and,  with  a  touch  of  that  secret  superstition,  or,  as  I  believe  it 
to  have  been,  daring  hypocrisy,  founded  on  a  not  unjustifiable 
self-confidence,  which  has  been  noticed  heretofore,  proclaimed 
himself  the  predestined  conqueror  of  Hannibal. 

In  the  end,  the  Senate  decreed  to  one  of  the  Consuls  Sicily, 
with  the  troops  already  in  that  province,  consisting  of  the  fugi- 
tives from  Cannae,  and  other  soldiere  exiled  to  the  island,  for 


SCIPIO    SAILS    TO    SICILY.  117 

misconduct  during  the  period  of  war,  with  a  power  to  raise  a 
force  of  volunteers,  but  not  to  hold  new  levies,  and  permission 
to  cross  over  into  Africa,  at  his  pleasure. 

The  other  was  to  have  Bruttium,  and  the  two  legions,  form- 
ing the  regular  Consular  army,  left  there  by  the  magistrate 
whom  he  superseded. 

By  a  mutual  agreement,  Scipio  received  Sicily,  with  permis- 
sion to  build  a  fleet  of  thirty  men-of-war,  by  voluntary  con- 
tribution of  the  colonies,  and  to  levy  a  force  of  volunteers.  With 
such  energy  was  this  accomplished,  that  twenty  quinque- 
remes,  or  line-of-battle-ships,  and  ten  quadremes,  the  se- 
cond rates  of  the  day,  were  launched,  fully  equipped,  man- 
ned and  armed,  within  forty-five  days  from  the  time  the 
trees  were  standing  in  the  forest ;  and,  early  in  the  spring,  he 
sailed  for  his  province  with  seven  thousand  volunteers,*  of  hoi*se 
and  foot  combined,  full  of  high  hopes  and  confidence  of  victory 

About  the  same  time,  in  the  early  spring,  Mago,  having  wm 
tered  in  Minorca,  as  has  been  stated,  landed  in  Liguria  with  six 
thousand  infantry,f  eight  hundred  horse  and  seven  elephants, 
and  having  made  himself  master  of  Genoa,  speedily  drew  to- 
gether such  a  head  of  the  disaffected  Gauls  as  to  cause  the  Ro- 
mans considerable  disquietude,  though  not  enough,  as  he  had 
hoped,  to  divert  Scipio  from  the  African  expedition. 

So  far,  indeed,  was  this  from  being  the  case,  that  the  fii'st 
care  of  that  commander  on  reaching  his  province,  was  to  send 
Lselius,  who  still  accompanied  him  as  his  lieutenant,  with  a 
squadron  to  the  African  coast  in  order  to  renew  his  communica- 
tions with  Massinissa.  And  this  he  did  so  effectually,  having 
surprised  Hippo  Regius,  or  Bona,  within  a  hundred  miles  of 
Carthage,  that  he  returned,  after  an  absence  of  a  few  days  only, 
with   the  strongest  encouragement,  and  promises  of  the  most 

*  Livy,  xxviii.  46 ;  Appian,  viii.  8.  f  Appian,  viii.  9. 


118  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

ample  support,  laden  with  the  rich  spoils  of  the  Barbary  plains, 
then  the  granary  of  the  world,  which  he  had  ravaged  far  and 
near. 

In  the  mean  time,  however,  Scipio  had  determined  on  a  mi- 
nor, yet  highly  important  enterprise. 

The  city  of  Locri,  one  of  the  strongest  and  wealthiest  of  the 
Greek  towns  of  lower  Italy,  had  revolted  from  Rome  to  the  Car- 
thaginians, at  the  period  of  Hannibal's  greatest  successes ;  but 
now  being  weary,  it  is  said,  of  the  cruel  Punic  sway,  or  probably 
foreseeing  the  approaching  ruin  of  that  cause,  oflfered  to  betray 
the  gari'isons  of  the  citadels,  of  which  there  were  two,  one  as  a 
seaward  defence,  the  other  commanding  the  town,  into  the 
hands  of  Scipio. 

And  in  consequence,  Caius  Pleminius,  the  propraetor  at  Rhe- 
gium  made  himself  master  of  the  one,  but  failed  in  surprising 
the  other.  For  several  days,  the  two  fortresses  remained  in  the 
possession,  the  one  of  Hamilcar,  the  other  of  the  Romans,  and 
they  fought  daily  in  the  streets,  until  the  citizens,  uniting  them- 
selves with  the  Romans,  shut  up  the  former  within  his  walls, 
and  strictly  blockaded  him.  Hannibal,  who  was  encamped  not 
far  off  on  the  river  Butrotum,  marched  down  in  force  to  the  res- 
cue, and,  having  sent  instructions  to  his  people  within  the  walls  to 
sally  and  attack  the  Romans  in  the  town  and  the  citizens  at  da)'- 
break,  appeared  unexpectedly,  scouring  the  country  with  his  Nu- 
midians,  and  would  have  retaken  the  place,  but  for  the  lack  of 
scaling  ladders  and  military  engines. 

That  same  night,  Scipio  crossed  over  the  straits  from  Messina 
with  his  fleet,  landed  and  occupied  the  town  with  his  legions  ; 
and,  when  the  Carthaginians  would  have  renewed  the  assault  at 
dawn,  aaUied  from  all  the  gates  at  once,  cut  to  pieces  two  hundred 
of  HannibaPs  advanced  parties,  and  forced  him  to  call  off  Iiis 
troops  and  raise  the  siege  in  haste,  the  Punic  garrison  escaping 
by  night,  having  raised  an  alarm  of  conflagration,  and  overtak- 


SCIPIO'S    AFRICAN    ARMY.  119 

ing  their  companions  by  a  forced  march,  more  resembling  a 
flight  than  a  retreat. 

This  was  a  vigorously  conceived,  and  well-planted  blow.  By 
it  Scipio  recovered  to  the  Komans  a  wealthy  and  powerful  de- 
pendency, struck  terror  into  the  disaffected  Italians  of  Magna 
Grsecia,  and  gained  the  valuable  prestige  of  having  worsted 
Hannibal  himself  in  the  first  encounter.  Of  the  troubles  which 
befell  in  Locri,  I  take  no  note ;  since  they,  and  the  cruelties  to 
which  they  led,  rest  with  Pleminius,  not  with  Scipio ;  who  re- 
turned to  his  own  province,  after  striking  this  blow,  in  order  to 
mature  his  plans  for  the  African  expedition. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  however,  that  during  this  summer, 
complaints  were  made  of  his  conduct  in  Locri  and  Sicily,  so 
grave  as  to  induce  the  Senate  to  send  commissioners  to  investi- 
gate the  charges.  These,  on  examination,  wholly  acquitted  him, 
and  doubtless  on  just  grounds,  since  luxury,  lasciviousness  and 
tyranny — the  things  of  which  he  was  accused — do  not  appear 
to  have  been  of  the  character  of  the  man  ;  and,  on  their  report, 
the  Senate  at  once  decreed  that  he  had  permission  to  choose 
what  force  he  should  deem  good,  out  of" the  Sicilian  armies,  and 
sail  to  Carthage  on  his  own  judgment. 

In  obedience  he  selected  the  fifth  and  sixth  Roman  legions, 
the  defeated  veterans  of  Cannae,  whose  ranks  he  supplied  with 
picked  men,  till  they  numbered,  each,  six  thousand  two  hundred 
foot  and  three  hundred  horse ;  he  also  chose,  says  Livy,  cavahy 
and  infantry  from  the  alhes  of  the  Latin  name,  equally  from  the 
disgraced  army  of  Cannse.  For,  says  Livy,  following  Polybius, 
no  doubt,  he  had  not  the  least  contempt*  for  that  soldiery,  know- 
ing that  the  frightful  defeat  they  had  sustained  was  owing  to  no 
cowardice  of  theirs,  and,  farther,  that  they  were  the  oldest  and 
most  experienced  veterans,  and  had  seen  more  service,  both  in 

*  Livy,  xxix.  24. 


120  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

the  field  and  in  the  attack  of  walled  towns,  than  any  other  Ro- 
man soldiers. 

These  men  had  been,  in  fact,  incessantly  under  arms  and  in 
active  service  for  eleven  years,  during  which  time,  as  disgraced 
soldiers,  they  were  not  allowed  to  set  foot  on  Italian  soil,  they 
were  not  allowed  to  partake  in  any  noble  or  grand  adventure, 
and  were  doubtless  burning  to  retrieve  their  character  by  the 
utmost  daring  and  devotion.  On  these  feelings,  no  less  on  their 
skill  and  aptitude  to  arms,  Scipio  unquestionably  relied.  In  him 
it  was  a  wise  reliance,  and  worthy  of  a  soldier  and  a  man  ;  and 
to  justify  it,  it  needs  only  to  be  said  that  by  them  it  was  not 
disappointed. 

The  numbers  of  the  armament,  which  was  embarked  in  four 
hundred  transports  covered  by  forty  line-of-battle  ships,  with 
distinguishing  ensigns  and  lanthorns,  with  provision  and  water 
for  five  and  forty  days,  remain  somewhat  in  doubt.  Appian 
states  them  at  sixteen  thousand  foot,  and  sixteen  hundred 
horse.*  Livy  confesses  himself  unable  to  come  to  a  decision, 
since  "  the  army,"  he  says,  "  is  variously  described  as  number- 
ing from  twelve  thousand  two  hundred,  to  thirty-five  thousand 
horse  and  foot."  ]'  Doubtless  the  truth  lay  intermediate  ;  and 
taking  into  consideration  the  foregoing  statements  concerning 
the  army  of  Cannae,  we  shall  be  irresistibly  led  to  the  conclusion, 
that  Scipio  carried  with  him  a  regular  consular  army,  neither 
more  nor  less  in  numbers,  though  in  quality  and  material  pro- 
bably the  best  that  Rome  ever  sent  out,  anterior  to  the  days  of 
Caesar. 

Now,  a  regular  consular  army  consisted  of  two  Roman  le- 
gions— and  two,  the  fifth  and  sixth,  we  are  accordingly  told  that 
he  did  carry — and  two  allied  legions  of  the  Latin  name — in  ac- 
cordance with  which  we  find  that  he  did  select  Latin  foot  and 
horse.  Hence,  we  shall,  I  think,  hardly  err  in  assuming  that 
*  Appian,  viii.  13.  f  Livy,  xxix.  25. 


NUMBERS    OF    HIS    ARMY.  121 

there  were  not  only  two  Latin  legions,  but  the  identical  two 
Latin  legions,  which  served,  were  defeated  and  exiled,  in  con- 
junction with  the  fifth  and  sixth  Roman  legions,  and  were  now 
permitted  with  them  to  retrieve  their  tarnished  reputation.  We 
are  expressly  told,  that  the  two  Roman  legions  consisted  each 
of  six  thousand  two  hundred  foot,  and  three  hundred  horse. 
The  contingent  of  the  Latin  legion  was  equal  in  infantry  to  that 
of  the  Roman  legion,  but  the  force  of  cavalry  was  doubled. 

We  have,  therefore,  on  this  base  of  computation — 
Two  Roman  legions — 12,400  foot  +600  horse  =  13,000  men. 
Two  Latin  legions— 12,400  foot  +  1200  horse  =  13,600  men. 
Scipio's  army,  therefore,  numbered  in  all  twenty-six  thousand 
six  hundred  men,  of  whom  only  eighteen  hundred  were  horse ; 
so  weak  habitually  were  the  Romans  in  this  important  arm  of 
the  service,  never  with  them  a  favorite,  or  one  in  which  they 
excelled. 

4t  d'iybreak,  on  the  morning  after  their  departure  from  the 
port  of  Lilybasum,  now  Marsala,  the  fleet  made  Fair  Promon- 
tory, within  a  few  miles'  distance  of  the  port  of  Carthage  ;  and 
there,  Scipio  accepting  the  name  as  an  omen  of  good,  the  fleet 
cast  anchor,  and  the  troops  disembarked,  and  prepared  an  in- 
trenched camp,  without  opposition. 

Thence,  sending  his  fleet  around  to  Utiea,  after  defeating  a 
reconnoitering  party  of  Carthaginian  horse  and  killing  their 
leader,  Hanno,  he  marched  inland,  ravaging  the  country,  and 
took  by  assault  a  wealthy  African  town,  in  which  besides  captur- 
ing vast  booty,  he  liberated  eighteen  thousand  Roman  and  Latin 
slaves,  who  had  pined  for  years  in  hopeless  captivity  in  that 
hated  land,  the  spoil  of  HannibaPs  long  ravages  in  the  heart  of 
the  Republic. 

These,  with  the  booty,  he  sent  back  to  Sicily  by  the  trans- 
ports ;  and  then  marched  inland,  in  a  circuitous  direction  south- 
ward and   westward,   avoiding  Carthage,  which  he  left  on  his 
6 


122  NEUTRALITY    RESPECTED. 

right,  she  having  no  force  present  with  which  to  encounter  him 
in  the  field.  Then,  having  effected  his  junction  with  Massinissa, 
he  sat  down  before  Utica,  with  his  kind  forces,  while  his  fleet 
blockaded  it  strictly  by  sea. 

Since  last  the  friends  had  met,  the  Nuraidian  prince  had  en- 
countered nothing  but  disasters.  He  had  succeeded  to  the 
crown  of  his  father,  Gala,  but  had  been  dispossessed  of  it  by 
Syphax,  and  the  Carthaginians,  and  was  now  a  fugitive  and  exile 
from  his  kingdom .  He  brought  but  two  hundred  Numidian 
horse  to  the  Roman  camp ;  but  he  brought  what  was  of  far 
more  worth — his  own  indefatigable  energy  and  zeal ;  his  death- 
less hatred  of  Carthage  ;  his  perfect  knowledge  of  the  country  ; 
his  incomparable  skill  and  ardor  as  a  partizan  officer,  and  last, 
not  least,  the  hearts,  if  not  the  arms,  of  all  his  countrymen. 

Carthage  shook  to  her  foundation  stone  with  perturbation  and 
dismay — yet  she  strained  every  nerve,  and,  within  forty  days  after 
Scipio's  trenches  were  opened  against  Utica,  had  collected  two 
mighty  armies  with  which  to  raise  the  siege.  Hasdrubal  arrived 
the  fii*st  with  thirty  thousand  foot  and  three  thousand  horse,  and  a 
few  days  later,  Syphax,  with  fifty  thousand  Numidian  infantry,  and 
ten  thousand  of  their  unrivalled  cavalry.  Scipio,  who  had  tried 
every  mode  already  by  which  to  carry  Utica,  now  tranquilly 
drew  off  his  men,  without  tumult  or  loss,  and  occupying  a  rocky 
peninsula  connected  with  the  main  land  by  a  low  sandy  neck, 
fortified  it  strongly,  having  his  fleet  drawn  up  on  the  northern 
or  seaward  shore,  his  legions  in  cantonments  on  the  ridge,  and 
his  cavalry  on  the  southern  slope,  commanding  the  isthmus. 
The  enemy  encamped,  separately  but  not  far  asunder,  hard  by, 
to  observe  his  motions.  So  closed  that  autumn,  and  Scipio's 
first  African  campaign. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  consular  elections  had  been  held  at 
Rome  ;  and  it  is  worthy  of  remark,  as  a  proof  that  the  dread  of 
Hannibal  and  Carthaginian  progress  was  at  length  dying  out,  if 


THE    ARMISTICE.  123 

not  extinct,  at  Rome,  that  two  pei-sons  were  chosen  to  be  the 
chief  magistrates  of  the  Republic,  who  were  in  no  sort  remarka- 
ble as  Generals,  Cneius  Servihus  Csepio,  and  Caius  Servilius 
Germinus. 

This  was  the  sixteenth  year  of  the  second  Punic  war,  and  the 
550lh  year  of  Rome,  equivalent  to  the  204th  before  the  Christian 
era.  The  Iraperiura,  or  Consular  power  for  Africa,  without  the 
rank  or  title,  was  given  to  Scipio,  not  for  the  year,  as  was  usual, 
nor  for  any  limited  time,  but  until  the  conclusion  of  the  war. 
And  this  he  was  not  inchned  to  procrastinate. 

During  the  whole  of  the  winter  season,  it  appears  that  he 
maintained  a  system  of  negotiations  with  Syphax,  under,  as  it 
were,  an  understanding  of  armistice,  whether  a  cessation  of  hos- 
tilities was  actually  proclaimed  or  not. 

The  object  of  these,  might  have  been,  in  the  first  instance, 
what  they  appeared  to  be ;  a  plan  to  bring  over  Syphax  fi'om 
the  Carthaginian  to  the  Roman  party ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  un- 
derstand how  Hasdrubal,  and  the  Carthaginian  forces,  should 
have  tacitly  sanctioned  proceedings,  the  avowed  intent  of  which 
was  to  deprive  them  of  their  last  ally. 

However  this  might  have  been,  finding  that  he  made  no  pro- 
gress in  detaching  Syphax  from  the  Punic  alliance,  Scipio  soon 
resolved  on  a  different  line  of  action  ;  and  how  far  his  conduct 
on  this  occasion  came  within  the  limits  acceded  to  military  chiefs, 
under  the  term  stratagems,  it  is  not  easy  to  resolve. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that,  both  on  the  occasion  of  the  mutiny 
of  his  own  soldiers  on  the  Xucar,  and  in  the  present  instance, 
the  character  of  Scipio  is  tainted  with  the  suspicion  of  treachery, 
to  say  no  more ;  and  in  my  own  opinion,  his  whole  career  shows 
the  man  not  alien  from  the  charge  of  hypocrisy.* 

*  I  am  aware  that  I  have  been  censured  by  a  candid  and  friendly 
critic — in  the  North  American  Review — for  over  stringency  in  my  judg- 
ments of  the   characters  of  the  Greek  leaders,  especially,  Miltiades, 


124  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS  SCIPIO. 

During  the  whole  period  of  these  negotiations,  officei-s  were 
coming  and  going  under  flags  between  the  Eoman  and  African 
head-quarters,  and  in  the  train  and  under  the  protection  of  these, 
Scipio  organized  a  regular  system  of  espionage.  Veteran  sol- 
diers, and  shrewd  subalterns,  in  the  disguise  of  camp  followers 
and  slaves,  made  themselves  intimately  acquainted  with  all  the 
localities  of  the  camps,  all  the  accidents  of  their  avenues,  outlets 
and  defences,  all  the  secrets  of  their  patroles  and  watch-settings. 
The  African  and  Carthaginian  armies  were  hutted  out  on  two 
separate  though  neighboring  eminences,  in  temporary  buildings, 
if  they  may  so  be  termed,  of  the  most  inflammable  materials — 
reeds,  hurdles,  and  slight  wooden  frames  covered  with  palm 
leaves. 

The  inflammable  nature  of  the  materials  suggested  the  de- 
sign ;  and  it  proved  as  easy  of  accomplishment,  as  of  conception. 

At  the  dead  of  night,  the  armistice  not  having  been,  as  it 
would  seem,  formally  denounced,  the  Roman  forces  marched  out 
silently  in  two  divisions.  Lsehus  against  the  camp  of  Syphax  ; 
Scipio  himself  against  that  of  Hasdrubal. 

Massinissa  with  his  Nuraidians,  and  all  the  horee,  was  detached 
earlier,  and  ambushed  on  the  hne  of  the  enemy's  retreat. 

Then  the  Numidian  huts  of  Syphax  were  fired  to  the  wind- 
ward ;  the  flames  ran  through  these  combustibles  as  over  a  train 
of  gunpowder  ;  and  suspecting  nothing  less  than  the  presence  of 
an  enemy,  the  terrified  inmates  rushed  out  tumultuous  and  un- 
armed to  extinguish  them. 

They  were  driven  in,  on  all  sides,  by  the  compact  masses  of 

Themistocles  and  Alexander,  as  if  I  weighed  thenn  in  the  scales  of 
Christian  morality,  not  of  heathen  virtue.  If  it  be  so,  I  am  not  aware 
of  it ;  nor  is  it  in  my  desire  or  my  plan  to  do  so.  I  find  these  men  short 
of  the  standard  which  I  recognize  in  Xenophon,  and  in  Epaminondas, 
leaders  in  whom  I  see  nothing  tortuous.  Scipio,  in  lilce  sort,  falls  short, 
to  my  eyes,  as  measured  beside  chiefs,  so  faulty  even  as  Marcellus  cr 
Caisar,  much  less  beside  one  so  noble  as  Titus  Quinclius  Flamininus. 


THE    CONFLAGRATION.  126 

the  legionaries  ;  above  forty  thousand  men  were  roasted  alive,  in 
their  blazing  tenements,  trampled  under  foot  by  one  another  in 
the  crowded  gateways,  slaughtered  by  the  unsparing  Roman 
broadsword.     It  must  have  been  a  very  Gehenna  upon  earth. 

Thousands  of  Arab  horses,  thousands  of  camels,  dromedai  ies, 
hundreds  perhaps  of  elephants,  bursting  their  picket  ropes, 
trampling  all  under  foot  in  mad  stampedoe,  blazing  and  shriek- 
ing into  the  desert  darkness,  so  many  living  comets. 

Armed  men  and  tender  women,  helpless  babes — for  as  the 
Arabs  now,  the  Numidians  then  had  their  city  in  their  camp — 
shrieking  in  hopeless  anguish  among  the  relentless  flames.  The 
cheers  without  of  the  savage  legionaries,  and  the  thundering 
charge  of  Massinissa's  fiery  horse  on  the  few  wretchejd  fugitives. 

Meantime,  from  the  other  camp,  aroused  by  the  roar  of  the 
flames,  and  the  shrieks  of  their  perishing  allies,  out  poured  the 
Carthaginians ;  unarmed,  at  first,  to  wonder,  to  assist,  to  tremble 
— then  to  rush  hastily  to  arms,  to  endeavor  to  form,  to  be  charged 
home  in  the  darkness,  cut  down,  surrounded,  driven  back  into 
their  quarters,  and  to  find  them,  too,  blazing  in  a  white  heat. 

Of  them,  thirty  thousand  men  perished.  Of  the  Numidians, 
sixty  thousand  strong,  all  were  destroyed,  or  so  utterly  dispersed 
that  they  never  rallied  again  to  arms,  Syphax  alone,  and  a  hand- 
ful of  cavalry,  excepted. 

Never  perhaps  in  all  the  hideous  annals  of  war,  was  such  a 
horror. 

But  for  this,  shudder  as  we  may,  and  pity  and  abhor,  we  may 
not  reproach  Scipio. 

Such  is  the  fearful  game  of  war,  such  the  appalling  duty  of 
those  who  play  at  it — to  sink,  burn,  capture,  and  destroy. 

And  this  is  the  game  at  which,  in  our  Christian  nineteenth 
century,  grave  senators,  gray-headed  men  with  one  foot  in  the 
grave,  would  make  the  nations  play,  in  very  wantonness  of  wild 
ambition,  prating  of  destiny  and  progress. 


126  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

Scipio  resumed  the  siege  of  Utica,  which  held  out  hke  a 
Spanish  city,  like  Saguntum,  Numantia,  glorious  Saragossa. 

She  knew  what  it  was  to  be  taken  by  a  Roman,  what  it  was 
to  surrender  to  those  who  never  spared. 

With  considerable  spirit  and  constancy,  Carthage  resolved  to 
pei-sist;  ordered  new  levies  ;  decreed,  once  more,  to  try  her  for- 
tune in  the  field. 

Scipio  could  not  take  Utica,  dared  not  attempt  Carthage. 

With  celerity,  which  proves  their  generalship,  Syphax  and 
Hasdrubal  again  took  the  field,  with  thirty  thousand  men  ;  re- 
inforced by  four  thousand  Spaniards,  recently  raised  in  Spain, 
and  transported  to  the  seat  of  war. 

The  battle  which  followed  was  brief,  summary,  decisive.  The 
Numidians,  raw  levies  and  young  soldiers,  could  not  stand  the 
Roman  horse  ;  the  Carthaginians  were  swept  away  Hke  chaff 
before  a  whirlwind,  by  the  unbridled  charge  of  Massinissa's 
Arabs.  The  Spaniards,  hopeless  of  quarter,  fought  to  the  last, 
and  were  butchered  to  a  man  by  the  legionaries. 

The  victors  were  wearied  by  the  slaughter,  not  by  the  conflict. 

Then  was  it  seen  that  Carthage  was  not  Rome,  but  a  commu- 
nity of  traffickers — not  a  proud  and  dauntless  aristocracy. 

After  Cannae,  Rome  sent  abroad  two  legions  into  Spain,  two 
more  to  Sicily. 

After  the  slaughter  of  "  the  Great  Plains,"  Cai-thage  recalled 
Mago  from  Liguria,  Hannibal  from  Bruttium.  Before  they 
could  arrive  she  treated. 

She  must  withdraw  from  Italy  and  Gaul ;  she  must  surrender 
all  her  colonies,  all  her  islands  between  Africa  and  Italy,  all  her 
war-ships  save  twenty,  she  must  pay  a  vast  sum  of  money  to 
defray  the  expenses  of  the  war. 

Hard  terms  for  the  haughty  mistress  of  the  seas,  before 
whom  so  late  all  but  the  pride  of  Rome  lay  prostrate 


THE    TRUCE.  127 

Yet  she  assented.  A  truce  was  concluded  with  Scipio. 
Ambassadors  were  sent  to  Rome. 

Meanwhile,  Mago's  division,  recalled  from  Liguria,  arrived  on 
the  African  coast ;  himself,  mortally  wounded  in  his  last  action 
with  Quinctilius  Varius  in  the  Milanese,  died  at  sea. 

Meanwhile,  news  arrived  that  Hannibal  himself  was  on  the 
Mediterranean.     Then  the  truce  was  broken. 

History  says  by  the  Carthaginians ;  but  history  is  Roman — is 
in  this  case  Poly bi us,  the  friend  and  panegyrist  of  Scipio. 

He  tells  us  that  the  Carthaginians  wantonly  seized  some  Roman 
transports,  driven  by  a  storm  into  the  bay  of  Carthage ;  refused 
satisfaction  to  Scipio's  envoys  ;  and  endeavored  treacherously  to 
seize  those  envoys  returning  to  Utica,  in  violation  of  their  flag. 

Hence  Scipio  was  enraged,  reasonably  and  justly ;  denounced 
the  truce,  and  renewed  the  war ;  but  still  could  not  take  Utica. 

So  Polybius.  "  But  it  is  probable,"  says  Dr.  Arndd,  "  that  a 
Carthaginian  narrative  of  the  war  in  Africa  would  so  represent  the 
matter,  that  posterity  would  esteem  the  behavior  of  the  Carthagi- 
nians, in  breaking  off  the  truce  when  it  suited  their  convenience,  as 
neither  more  nor  less  dishonorable  than  the  conduct  of  Scipio  him- 
self, when  he  set  fire  to  the  camps  of  Syphax  and  Hasdrubal ;  and 
that,  although  the  success  was  different,  yet  the  treachery  in 
both  cases,  whatever  it  may  have  been,  was  pretty  nearly  equal." 

By  this  time  Hannibal  had  landed,  and  the  end  was  at  hand. 

He  landed  at  Leptis,  now  Lebida,  a  town  on  the  coast,  be- 
tween Cape  Bona  and  Cape  Paul,  and  after  refreshing  his  troops 
^for  a  few  days  at  Adrumetum,  marched  directly  inland  to  a 
place  named  Zama,  five  days'  journey  to  the  west  of  Carthage, 
m  the  vicinity  of  which  Scipio  was  devastating  the  country  and 
capturing  the  inland  towns. 

Scipio  immediately  marched  to  meet  him,  having  been  joined 


128  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

a  few  days  before  by  Massinissa,  with  six  thousand  foot  and  four 
thousand  of  his  indomitable  and  indefatigable  horse. 

An  interview,  it  appears,  took  place  between  the  generals  on 
the  day  before  the  action  ;  but  the  details  of  the  conference  and 
the  speeches,  as  related  by  Polybius  and  Livy,  are  manifestly 
framed  to  suit  Roman  tastes,  and  more  particularly  to  flatter  the 
vanity  of  the  Scipios. 

All  that  we  truly  know  is  this,  that  the  conference  had  no 
results,  and  that  if  an  accommodation  was  proposed,  it  fell  to  the 
ground  bootless. 

So  they  met  at  Zama — the  general,  who  had  never  lost  a 
battle,  and  the  chief  who  had  conquered  all  his  lieutenants  ;  the 
general  whose  glory  was  Italian,  and  he  whose  fame  was  won  in 
Spain ;  even  as  at  Waterloo,  about  two  thousand  yeai*s  afterward, 
and  at  the  close  of  a  similar  yet  vaster  struggle,  there  met  two 
strangely  similar,  and  similarly  pitted  champions.  And  at 
Zama,  as  at  Waterloo,  the  brighter  and  more  dazzling  genius 
fell,  defeated  by  the  nation,  rather  than  by  the  man  who  opposed 
him. 

The  child  of  fortune  stood  on  the  threshold  of  his  fate.  And 
his  fate  was  his  country's  doom. 

The  forces  of  the  respective  armies  are  not  stated,  but  it  is 
probable  that  numerically  they  were  nearly  equal,  if  the  Romans 
were  not  superior,  since  the  Latin  historians  would  assuredly  not 
have  held  silent,  had  their  forces  been  inferior. 

In  quality,  however,  the  Romans  were  vastly  superior.  From 
the  first  day  of  the  war,  the  Roman  infantry,  even  their  raw, 
levies,  were  equal  if  not  superior  to  the  Carthaginian  veterans, 
and,  as  Dr.  Arnold  remarks,  never  had  been  beaten  behind 
works. 

These  men  were  picked  veterans  of  twelve  years'  service. 

And  now  the  superb  Numidian  cavalry,  the  arm  by  which 


ZAMA.  129 

Hannibal  had  won  all  his  battles,  or  at  least  a  vast  preponderance 
of  it,  was  on  the  Roman  side. 

Hannibal  had,  it  is  true,  above  eighty  elephants  ;  but  neither 
at  Zaraa,  nor  in  any  other  great  action,'  was  much  effected  by 
their  means.  They  generally  injured  their  own  party  at  least  as 
much  as  the  enemy ;  and  on  this  occasion  Scipio  had  arranged 
his  forces  purposely  with  a  view  to  frustrating  their  onset. 

In  Heu  of  his  ordering  the  maniples  of  his  three  divisions,  of 
hastati,  principes,  and  triarii,  in  quincunx,  or  like  the  squares  of 
a  chess-board,  as  was  usual,  he  placed  them  each  in  the  rear  of 
that  before  it,  leaving  long  lanes  or  intervals  from  the  van  to  the 
rear  ;  which  he  filled  with  light  troops  in  loose  order,  whose 
duty  it  should  be  to  attract  the  elephants,  and  draw  them  harm- 
lessly to  the  rear,  and  out  of  the  action. 

Caius  Laelius  was  on  the  left  wing  with  the  Roman  and  Latin 
horse;  Massinissa  with  his  Numidians  on  the  left. 

Hannibal  had  his  mercenaries,  Ligurians,  Celtic  Gauls,  Bale- 
arians  and  Moors,  twelve  thousand  strong,  in  his  front  line — but 
none  now  of  those  hardy,  active  Spanish  foot,  in  their  white  linen 
coats  with  scarlet  hems,  whose  short  stabbing  swords  had  done 
such  deadly  work  at  Cannae — his  Carthaginian  veterans,  like 
the  heroes  of  the  Imperial  Guard,  he  held  in  reserve,  trusting, 
hke  his  great  successor,  with  them  to  "  strike"  the  decisive  blow, 
as  he  had  ever  done  before,  and  conquer  with  a  thunderstoke. 

On  his  right,  he  had  his  Carthaginian  cuirassiers  facing  the 
Italian  horse  of  Lgehus ;  his  Numidians  he  opposed,  on  his  left, 
to  the  Numidians  of  the  fierce  and  headlong  Massinissa ;  but 
these  were  outnumbered  as  two  to  one,  and  were  perhaps  con- 
fused and  distracted  by  being  opposed  to  their  own  countrymen 
on  their  own  soil,  and  to  a  native  prince. 

The  battle  began  by  a  charge  of  the  elephants,  on  the  part  of 
Hannibal  ;  but  being  alarmed  by  the  trumpets  and  shouting  of 
the  Romans,  and  galled  by  the  skirmishers,  some  were  teazed 


ISO  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIFIO. 

down  the  intervals  of  his  lines  to  Scipio's  rear,  some  recoiled  to 
the  left  and  right,  and,  falling  in  among  their  own  horse,  disor- 
dered them.  Then  Lgelius  with  the  Italians  charged  the  cuir- 
assiers home ;  and  Massinissa,  disdaining  to  skirmish  after  the 
Numidian  fashion,  broke  in  like  a  torrent,  with  levelled  lances  on 
his  countrymen. 

Both  conquered  easily  ;  and,  on  both  wings,  elephants,  cuir- 
assiers and  Numidians  were  scattered  in  wild  flight  over  the 
sandy  plains,  and  slaughtered  for  miles  in  swift  and  merciless 
pursuit. 

Meantime,  the  main  armies  joined,  and  a  conflict  ensued,  such 
as  perhaps  never  had  occurred  during  the  war.  The  foreign 
mercenaries  of  Carthage  were,  however,  overmatched  by  the 
Roman  hastati  and  principes,  and,  not  being  properlj  supported 
by  the  second  hne  of  Africans,  were  at  last  beaten  after  a  severe 
struggle.  Then,  in  revenge,  they  fell  on  the  Africans,  and  cut 
them  down,  while  the  bloody  broadswords  of  the  legionaries 
were  fleshed  fiercely  in  their  rear. 

Hannibal  was  compelled  to  make  his  reserve  present  their  spears, 
to  preserve  themselves  unbroken,  against  his  own  fugitives ;  and 
when  the  broken  mob  of  these  reeled  out  of  the  action,  and  dis- 
persed by  the  wings  towards  the  rear,  the  Romans  found  them- 
selves opposed  to  a  new  army,  the  invincibles  of  HannibaPs 
Italian  conquests  ;  the  victoi-s  of  the  Ticinus,  of  the  Trebia,  of 
Thrasymene  and  Cannae ;  the  men  who  had  never  fought  but  to 
conquer  ;  to  whom  battle  was  pastime,  and  victory  the  breath 
of  life. 

There  was  a  stern  pause — a  breathing  spell. 

Scipio  reinforced  his  lines  with  the  long  spears  of  his  triarii. 

Hannibal  brought  up  his  last  reserves. 

Then,  as  at  Marengo,  one  battle  ended,  a  second  was  begun, 
fiercer,  deadlier,  decisive,  but  with  a  different  issue. 

The  men  were  matched,  as  perhaps  never  wore  others  ;  and 


THE    VICTORY.  131 

the  fight  raged  and  reeled,  hand  to  hand,  foot  to  foot,  cruelly 
fought  with  short  weapons.  Whole  ranks  went  down  where 
they  stood,  on  both  sides,  with  all  their  wounds  in  front ;  and 
other  ranks  strode  over  them,  to  meet,  and  fall,  and  be  succeeded 
in  Hke  fashion. 

There  was  no  thought  of  flight  or  retreat  on  either  side. 
Romans  nor  Carthaginians  flagged  nor  wavered.  The  battle 
was  balanced,  until,  above  the  din  and  clang  of  blades  and  brazen 
bucklers,  loud  rose  the  yell  of  Massinissa's  returning  Arabs,  and 
the  bloody  spears  of  the  Numidians  and  the  broadswords  of 
Caius  Lselius  plunged  with  fatal  execution  into  the  defenceless 
masses  of  the  Carthaginian  rear. 

Twenty  thousand  men  were  slain  in  the  battle,  twenty  thou- 
sand more  were  made  prisoners.  Hannibal,  accompanied  by  a 
handful  of  horse,  "  with  a  nobler  fortitude,"  as  Arnold  well  ob- 
serves, "  than  his  brother  had  shewn  at  the  Metaurus,  escaped  to 
Hadrumetum.  He  knew  that  his  country  would  now  need  his 
assistance  more  than  ever ;  and  as  he  had  been  in  so  great  a  de- 
gree the  promoter  of  the  war,  it  ill  became  him  to  shrink  from 
bearing  his  full  share  of  the  weight  of  its  disastrous  issue. 

The  Field  of  Zama  ended  the  Second  Punic  war  ;  ended 
almost,  indeed,  the  history  of  Carthage.  That  hapless  city  had 
no  second  army,  which  to  risk  in  the  field.  Hannibal  counselled 
peace  ;  and  peace  the  conquerors  granted,  but  upon  teims  which 
were  only  not  destruction.  All  their  possessions  out  of  Africa 
must  be  surrendered  ;  all  their  war  ships  except  ten  ;  all  their 
elephants  must  be  given  up  ;  all  their  prisoners,  all  their  deserters 
restored.  They  must  undertake  no  war  out  of  Africa  ;  nor  any 
in  Africa,  but  with  the  consent  of  Rome  ;  their  country  must  be 
occupied,  at  their  own  expense,  for  three  months  by  the  Roman 
army ;  and,  in  conclusion,  they  must  pay  the  vast  sum  of  ten 
thousand  Euboic  talents,  or  nearly  three  hundred  thousand 
pounds  sterling,  as  the  price  of  peace. 


132  PUBLIUS    CORNELIUS    SCIPIO. 

Hannibal  returned  to  Carthage  beaten,  but  not  outgeneraled ; 
and,  as  he  had  shown  himself  his  country's  greatest  soldier  in 
war,  he  proved  himself  her  best  citizen  in  peace  ;  in  both  greater 
than  his  more  fortunate  but  unequal  rival. 

Persecuted  to  death,  unworthily,  by  the  great  nation  with 
whom  he  had  warred  so  magnificently,  he  died,  like  his  mighty 
follower.  Napoleon,  miserably  and  in  exile. 

Scipio  returned  to  Rome,  triumphed,  was  loaded  with  honoi-s, 
and  styled  the  Savior  of  his  country,  African  us. 

Here  the  glory  of  his  career  ends ;  and  here  I  quit  him. 

Of  his  after  services  against  Antiochus  I  shall  not  speak ;  for 
— though  his  arms  were  attended  with  their  usual  success — he 
served  only  as  lieutenant  to  his  brother  Asiaticus ;  and  it  cannot 
be  determined  to  whom  should  attach  the  greater  share  of  the 
glory. 

Thus  far  his  career  was  singularly  parallel  with  that  of  Wel- 
lington, as  was  that  of  Napoleon  with  his  far  greater  antagonist 
— but  here  the  parallelism  ends. 

Scipio  fell  into  disgrace  with  his  countrymen,  partly  through 
their  turbulence  and  party  spirit,  partly,  it  would  seem,  through 
his  own  arrogance,  and  never  recovered  their  favor.  He  died  in 
voluntary  exile  at  Liternum,  and  the  sad  motto  on  his  tomb, 
Ingrata  patria  ne  quidem  ofsa  habebis,'^  offers  a  strange  and 
gloomy  contrast  to  the  superb  pomp  of  sorrow  with  which  a 
nation  bore  her  hero  to  the  grave,  when  in  the  noble  mausoleum 
of  St.  Paul,  the  conqueror  of  Trafalgar  received  the  conqueror 
cf  Waterloo. 

*  Ungrateful  country,  thou  shalt  not  even  hold  my  bones 


11. 

TITUS  QUINCTIUS  FLAMININUS. 

HIS  TWO  CAMPAIGNS. 

HIS    BATTLES    OF  THE  ^OUS,  AND    OF    CYNOSCEPHAL^ LIBERA- 
TION   OF    GREECE DEATH    OF    HANNIBAL. 

Of  all  the  truths  at  which  we  arrive  through  a  calm  and  dis- 
passionate study  of  history,  none  appears  to  me  more  certain 
than  this,  that,  as  regards  the  career  and  course  of  empires,  the 
rise  and  fall  of  states,  there  neither  is,  nor  has  been,  any  such 
thing  as  Fortune  ;  that  from  the  beginning  of  time,  to  the  events 
born  of  the  present  day,  every  minute  particular,  every  seemingly 
unimportant  incident — or,  as  men  are  fond  to  call  it,  accident — in 
the  affairs  of  nations  is  part  and  parcel  of  one  grand,  universal,  all- 
pervading  scheme  of  divine  world-government,  projected  before 
the  patriarch  kings  led  forth  their  flocks  to  feed  on  pastures  yet 
moist  with  the  waters  of  the  deluge,  but  not  to  be  fulfilled  until 
time  itself  shall  have  an  end. 

It  can  hardly,  I  think,  fail  to  strike  the  least  observant  of 
readers,  that  unless  the  civilized  world  had  been  for  a  long  period 
chained  together  under  the  stagnant,  and  in  the  main,  peaceful 
despotism  of  the  successors  of  the  twelve  Caesars,  it  never  would 
have  been  prepared  to  receive  that  tincture  of  letters,  of  human 


134  TITUS    QUINCTIUS    FLAMININUS. 

ity,  and  above  all,  of  Christian  faith,  with  which  it  became  in 
tbe  end  so  thoroughly  imbued  ;  that  in  every  case,  without  one 
exception,  it  brought  over  to  its  own  milder  cultivation,  milder 
religion,  the  fiercest  and  most  barbarous  of  its  heathen  con- 
querors. 

Not  a  province  of  the  Western  Roman  empire  but  was 
overrun,  devastated,  conquered,  permanently  occupied  by  hordes 
of  the  wildest,  crudest,  most  violent,  most  ignorant  of  mankind 
— Goths,  Vandals,  Huns,  Vikings,  and  Norsemen,  Jutes  and 
Danes,  tribes  whose  very  names  to  this  day  stand  as  the  types 
of  unlettered  force  and  unsparing  outrage.  Not  a  province  of 
that  empire,  though  of  its  present  population  not  one  hundredth 
part  can  trace  an  approximate  descent  from  the  original  Roman 
colonists,  so  vast  the  influx  of  the  Pagan  invaders,  but  in  the 
lapse  of  time  conquered  its  conquerors  by  the  arts  of  peace,  and 
so  became  the  germ  of  that  Christian  civilization,  that  Christian 
liberty,  which — though  either,  or  both,  may  be  temporarily  ob- 
scured for  the  moment — we  see,  in  the  main,  steadily  and  con- 
sistently pervading  the  Europe  and  America  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

That  this  state  of  things  could  have  existed,  by  any  reasona- 
ble probability  at  this  day,  in  the  event  of  Darius  or  Xerxes 
having  overrun  and  occupied  Western  Europe,  with  their  orien- 
tal hordes — in  the  event  of  Carthage  having  subdued  Rome,  and 
filled  Italy,  Greece,  Gaul,  Spain,  Britain,  with  her  bloody  fiend- 
worship,  and  her  base  Semitic  trade-spirit — in  the  event  of 
Mark  Antony  having  won  the  day  at  Actium,  and  broken  up 
the  heritage  of  Rome,  like  that  of  Alexander,  among  a  dozen 
jarring  dynasties,  instead  of  leaving  it  to  be  centralized  into  an 
almost  universal  empire — in  the  event  of  the  Saracen  having 
destroyed  the  paladins  of  Charles  Martel  at  Tours — of  the  Turks 
having  conquered  the  Mediterranean  at  Lepanto,  or  Continental 


PROVIDENTIAL    ENDS.  135 

Europe  under  the  walls  of  Vienna — few  will  be  found,  I  think, 
so  bard}^  as  to  assert. 

Strange,  therefore,  as  it  may  appear  at  first  sight,  the  first 
germs  of  existing  institutions  may  be  said  to  have  been  sown  07i 
the  banks  of  the  Tlissus,  the  Eurotas,  and  the  Tiber ;  and  the 
deity,  whom  the  blind  superstition  of  the  early  Romans  venera- 
ted as  the  war-god  Quirinus  guarding  the  wave-rocked  cradle  of 
Rome's  twin  founders,  was,  in  truth,  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  watching 
over  the  infancy  of  that  peculiar  and  appointed  people  which 
should  make  smooth  his  way  before  him,  and  prepare  the  nations 
to  receive  the  faith  of  civil  and  religious  freedom. 

For  all  this  wonderful  accomplishment  of  wonderful  designs, 
however,  we  shall  find  that  the  instruments  are  purely  human, 
although  the  ends  may  be  divine — that,  although  the  men  are 
never  wanting  to  do  His  work,  when  done  it  must  be,  it  is  for 
the  most  part,  if  not  always,  in  blindness,  in  sin,  in  wrath,  and 
in  the  madness  of  ambition,  that  they  do  that  work,  imagining 
themselves,  vainly,  busied  about  their  own  miserable  ends  ;  and 
for  the  doing  it  they  are  alone  accountable.  But  not  so  of  the 
nations,  which,  having  no  life  hereafter,  no  individual  identity  in 
the  world  to  come,  meet  their  rewards  or  punishments  here, 
where  their  virtues  or  their  vices  have  required  them,  and  thrive 
or  perish  as  they  work  toward  the  completion  of  His  infinite 
designs. 

Nowhere,  perhaps,  in  the  whole  course  of  history,  is  this  super- 
vision of  the  Most  High,  which  even  religious  men  are  wont  un- 
thinkingly to  call  Fortune,  more  clearly  visible  than  in  the  events 
of  the  Second  Punic  War. 

At  home  the  republic,  though  undaunted  and  unequalled  of 
all  times  in  heroism,  was  weeping  tears  of  blood  at  every  pore, 
and  resisting  only  with  a  persistency  savoring  almost  of  despair. 
Abroad  it  was  only  by  the  exercise  of  sacrifices  and  self-denial 


13G  TITUS    QUINCTIUS    FLAMININUS. 

almost  superhuman,  that  she  was  enabled  to  maintain  her  foot- 
hold in  her  provinces  of  Sicily  and  Spain. 

It  seems  to  us,  when  we  read  how  Capua,  the  noblest  of  her 
allied  cities,  opened  her  gates  and  made  common  cause  with  the 
enemy,  how  twelve  of  the  thirty  colonies  of  the  Latin  name  re- 
fused their  contingents  of  men  and  money ;  how  all  the  north  of 
Italy,  then  Cisalpine  Gaul,  from  the  Var  to  the  Rubicon,  was  in 
tumultuous  arms  against  her ;  how  all  the  proud  and  magnifi-. 
cent  cities  of  La  Puglia  and  Calabria  were  leagued  with  the  ter- 
rible invader ;  it  seems,  I  say,  as  if  one  superadded  call  on  her 
resources  must  have  remained  unanswered ;  one  more  war- 
trumpet  blown  by  a  new  enemy  must  have  sounded  her  death- 
note. 

And  there  was  one  moment,  when  it  appeared  that  this  con- 
tingency was  close  at  hand.  In  the  year  of  the  city  540,  while 
all  the  south  of  Italy  was  in  arms  with  Hannibal  from  Capua 
down  to  the  Gulf  of  Taranto,  and  all  the  north  was  in  that 
tumultuous  state  of  disorganization  which  with  Celtic  populations 
is  ever  the  herald  of  coming  insurrection,  Sardinia  suddenly 
broke  out  into  open  and  armed  rebellion.  Sicily,  also,  in  which 
Hiero,  the  fast  and  faithful  friend  of  Rome,  had  lately  died  at  a 
very  advanced  age,  rejected  the  Roman  alliance,  and  a  war  of 
extermination  was  raging  in  that  beautiful  island  between  the 
partisans  of  the  two  rival  powers,  and  the  forces  which  each 
could  spare  from  the  home  conflict  to  aid  its  faction. 

At  this  crisis,  Philip  of  Macedon,  the  descendant  of  Alexander, 
and  at  that  time  the  most  powerful  of  European  princes,  entered 
into  an  alHance,  offensive  and  defensive,  with  Hannibal,  and 
would  in  the  course  of  that  very  summer  have  crossed  the 
Adriatic,  and  invaded  Italy  with  some  five-and-twenty  thousand 
men,  sixteen  thousand  of  whom  were  the  hitherto  unconquered 
phalanx,  provided  with  that  arm,  in  the  greatest  possible  perfec- 


PROBABLE    RESULTS.  137 

lion,  the  want  of  which  had  robbed  Hannibal  of  the  fruits  of  all 
his  great  pitched  battles — I  mean  an  efficient  artillery. 

In  this  respect  the  Greeks  were  unsurpassed ;  the  Greek  engi- 
neers were  the  wonder  of  the  world,  as  was  subsequently  shown 
at  the  siege  of  Syracuse;  and  how  great  soever  the  superiority 
of  the  Romans  to  the  Carthaginians  in  this  arm  of  service,  it 
was  as  nothing  to  the  skill  of  the  Greek  artillerists,  and  the  ex- 
cellence of  the  Greek  machinery. 

What  this  combination  might — I  should  rather  say  might  not 
— have  eflfected,  it  were  difficult  to  show ;  more  difficult  to  show 
how  Rome  could  have  resisted  it.  For  my  part,  having  exam- 
ined the.  question  in  all  its  lights,  I  am  of  opinion  that,  had  this 
alliance  gone  into  eflfect,  and  Philip  acted  with  energy  and 
steadiness  of  purpose  equal  to  his  bravery  and  ambition,  Mar- 
cellus  never  would  have  taken  Syracuse,  nor  Scipio  conquered 
Spain ;  but  that  from  both  those  countries  triumphant  rein- 
forcements would  have  poured  in  to  Hannibal,  over  the  Alps, 
across  the  straits  of  Messina,  that  an  Italian  Zama  would  have 
sealed  the  doom  of  Rome,  and  a  Punic  ploughshare  razed  the 
foundations  of  the  capitol. 

But  such — it  is  well  for  humanity — was  not  to  be  the  issue 
of  the  war.  Philip's  ambassadors,  returning  with  the  treaty 
signed  and  ratified  by  Hannibal,  were  taken  by  the  Roman 
squadron  off  the  Calabrian  coast,  and  sent  to  the  city  with  their 
papei-s. 

A  year  elapsed  before  the  treaty  could  be  renewed ;  and, 
meantime,  the  Romans,  awakened  to  a  perception  of  their  dan- 
ger, found  means  to  enkindle  the  jiEtolians  and  Illyrian  pirates 
against  Philip,  and  in  the  end  to  organize  a  Greek  confederation 
against  Macedon,  which  gave  its  active  and  ambitious  sovereign 
plenty  of  work  to  do  on  his  own  side  of  the  Adriatic.  At  a 
later  period  he  found  cause  to  repent  that  he  had  ever  meditated 
intervention. 


138  TITUS    QUINCTIUS    FLAMININUS.  _ 

Such  strokes  of  fortune,  so  historians  call  them,  as  that  capture 
of  the  ambassadors  of  Philip,  which,  perhaps,  saved  Rome — as 
that  strong  gale  which  blew  on  Christmas  Eve  on  Bantry  Bay, 
dispersing  Hoche's  armament  to  the  four  winds  of  heaven — such 
strokes,  I  say,  of  fortune,  I  hold  to  be  the  visible  agencies  and 
instruments  of  God's  providence,  in  the  government  of  nations, 
to  the  welfare  of  the  world. 

From  Rome  that  pei-il  was  averted.  The  arms  of  Macedon 
abstained,  perforce,  from  the  shores  of  devastated  Italy.  The 
arms  of  Syracuse,  of  Spain,  were  wrested  from  the  hands  which 
would  have  wielded  them  in  the  behalf  of  Carthage.  The  arms 
even  of  the  unbridled  Numidians  were  turned  against  the  masters 
whom  they  had  served  so  fatally  for  Rome.  And  out  of  the 
furnace  of  that  scathing  war,  the  giant  form  of  the  chosen  re- 
public emerged,  without  one  hair  singed,  one  thread  of  its  vest- 
ments injured  ;  and  that,  like  the  faithful  sons  of  Israel,  by  the 
especial  providence  of  the  Almighty. 

Years  passed,  and  events  hurried  toward  their  consummation. ' 
Yet  still,  though  from  this  date  the  tide  of  Hannibal's  affairs 
began  to  ebb,  and  that  of  Rome's  to  flow  with  a  healthier, 
prouder  current,  it  was  not  until  twelve  more  terrible  campaigns 
had  been  fought  out  in  vain,  that  the  star  of  the  great  Carthagi- 
nian set  in  blood  at  Zama,  and  the  name  of  Carthage  herself,  all 
but  one  brief  spasmodic  sound  of  fury  and  despair,  went  out  and 
was  forgotten  from  among  the  nations. 

Then  rousing  herself,  like  a  galled  lioness,  Rome  went  forth  to 
avenge  and  conquer. 

Hitherto  she  had  fought  at  home  for  existence,  henceforth  she 
fought  abroad  for  dominion  ;  and  abroad  as  at  home,  until  her 
mission  was  accomplished  and  His  work  done  fully  to  the  end, 
she  was  invincible,  as  the  fruit  of  her  labors  is  eternal. 

The  war,  which  had  been  undertaken  against  Philip  by  the 
Romans  shortly  after  his  giving  them  the  first  offence,  had  Ian- 


PROVIDENTIAL    ENDS.  139 

guished  from  the  beginniDg  on  both  sides,  and  peace  had  been 
concluded  between  the  contending  parties  some  three  years  be- 
fore the  decisive  victory  of  Zama. 

So  soon,  however,  as  peace  was  concluded  with  Carthage,  in 
the  year  of  the  city  552,  B.  C.  200,  true  to  the  latter  part  at 
least  of  her  famous  motto, 

Parcere  devictis  et  dehellare  superhos* 
Rome  sought  at  once  a  cause  of  war,  whereby  to  chastise  Philip 
for  the  comfort  given  to  her  enemies  in  her  worst  time  of  need. 
Nor  sought  long  in  vain. 

A  deputation  from  the  Athenians  came  seeking  succor ;  the 
arms  of  Philip  were  too  near  their  borders. 

War  was  declared,  the  Consul  Sulpicius  landed  at  Dyrrachium 
with  a  regular  army,  and  the  campaign  commenced  by  a  series 
of  operations  in  the  valley  of  the  river  Erigon,  in  Dassaretia,  the 
object  of  Philip  being  to  prevent  that  of  the  consul  to  secure  his 
junction  with  his  Dardanian  and  -^tohan  allies.  Several  sharp 
skirmishes  occurred,  in  all  of  which  the  Macedonians  were 
worsted  with  loss,  and  in  one  instance  Philip  narrowly  escaped 
being  taken  prisoner ;  whereupon  he  retreated  through  the 
mountain-passes,  throwing  up  strong  field-works  in  every  availa- 
ble position,  but  avoiding  a  general  action. 

His  works  all  proved  useless,  being  either  forced  or  turned 
without  difficulty  by  the  active  and  movable  legionary  tactic  of 
the  Romans,  against  which  it  became  at  once  evident  that  so 
ponderous  and  unwieldy  a  body  as  the  phalanx  could  not 
manoeuvre  or  fight,  in  broken  ground,  with  a  hope  of  success. 

In  the  end  Philip  retired  at  his  leisure  into  his  hereditary 
kingdom,  and  the  consul  having  stormed  and  garrisoned  the 
small  town  of  Pelium,  on  the  Macedonian  frontier,  fell  back  to 

=*  "To  spare  the  conquered  and  subdue  the  proud," — the  former  of 
which  she  never  did. 


140  TITUS    QUINCTIUS    FLAMININUS. 

Apollonia  on  the  lUyrian  sea  coast,  without  accomplishing  his 
object. 

Still  his  campaign  had  not  been  useless,  for  he  had  snatched 
the  prestige  of  invariable  success  from  the  phalanx,  had  estab- 
lished the  incontestible  superiority  of  the  Roman  soldiery  of  all 
arms  to  the  Greek,  and  had  defeated  the  Macedonians  on  every 
occasion,  when  they  had  ventured  to  await  battle. 

It  is  not  a  little  remarkable,  and  proves  clearly  the  singular 
adaptabihty  of  the  Romans  to  all  martial  practices,  that  whereas, 
scarce  twenty  years  before,  we  find  their  cavalry  the  worst  in  all 
respects  but  personal  valor  in  the  known  world,  and  their  light 
troops  unable  to  compete  even  with  the  barbarian  allies  of  Han- 
nibal, we  now  observe  them  superior  in  both  these  arms,  owing, 
as  it  is  distinctly  stated  by  all  the  writers,  to  the  superior  excel- 
lence of  their  weapons*  and  equipment,  even  to  the  far-famed 
targeteers  and  life-guards  of  Macedonia. 

In  the  following  year,  Sulpicius  was  superseded  by  the  new 
consul,  Publius  Villius  Tappulus,  who,  taking  command  of  Sul- 
picius' legions  at  Apollonia,  advanced  up  the  open  valley  of  the 
Aous,  now  Vioza,  with  the  intention  of  forcing  the  famous 
passes,  variously  known  as  the  Aoi  Stenae,  or  Fauces  Antigonen- 
ses,  and  now  as  the  defiles  of  the  Viosa,  rather  than  turning 
them  by  way  of  Dassaretia,  as  had  been  done  previously  by  his 
predecessor.  The  judgment  was  sound,  the  execution  naught. 
For,  after  marching  to  within  five  miles  of  the  western  extremity 
of  the  defiles,  he  fortified  his  camp  in  the  plain,  "  probably  in 
the  valley  of  the  Dryno,f  above  its  junction  with  the  Vioza,  re- 
connoitered  the  position  of  Philip,  who  was  very  strongly  posted, 
in  an  entrenched  camp,  at  the  most  difficult  point  of  the  pass, 
a  cheval  on  the  river,  and  occupying  both  the  mountain  sides, 

*  Livy,  xxxi.  34,  35. 

t  Col.  Leake,  Travels  in  Northern  Greece,  i.  385  . 


HIS    CHARACTER.  141 

and  there  lay  perfectly  inactive  until  he  was  himself  relieved  by 
Titus  Quinctius  Flamininus,  his  successor  in  the  consular  dignity. 

This  man,  of  the  early  Roman  leaders,  was  in  many  respects 
one  of  the  most  remarkable ;  in  one  particular,  with  the  single 
exception  of  Caius  JuHus  Caesar,  the  great  Dictator,  he  stands 
alone,  in  honorable  contrast  to  his  merciless  and  cruel  country- 
men— though  quick  and  vehement  of  temper,  he  was  a  just 
man,  and  both  merciful  and  courteous  to  conquered  enemies. 
The  one  blot  on  his  character,  to  which  I  shall  come  hereafter, 
must  be  ascribed  to  the^policy  of  his  country,  under  direct  orders 
from  which  he  was  unquestionably  acting,  not  to  his  own  wishes 
or  disposition,  to  which  nothing  could  be  more  abhorrent  than 
the  duty  imposed  upon  him. 

Plutarch  informs'*  us  that,  in  his  time,  "  it  was  easy  to  judge 
of  his  pei'sonal  appearance,"  which,  unfortunately,  he  has  not 
described,  "from  his  statue  in  brass  at  Bome,  inscribed  with 
Greek  character,  which  still  stands  opposite  to  the  hippodrome, 
nigh  to  the  great  Apollo  from  Carthage." 

As,  however,  the  whole  tenor  of  Plutarch^s  life  is  laudatory, 
and  for  that  gossiping  anecdote-monger  singularly  correct  and 
clear,  we  may  take  it  as  a  fact  that  the  nobihty  of  his  person 
was  not  unequal  to  that  of  his  character ;  which  I  consider  the 
finest  recorded  of  any  Roman  general  or  statesman. 

"  He  is  said,"  Continues  the  author  I  have  already  quoted,f 
"  to  have  been  of  a  temperament  impulsive  and  vehement  both 
in  his  likings  and  disHkings,  but  with  this  distinction,  that  he 
was  quick  to  wrath,  which  quickly  passed  away,  but  prompt  to 
kindness  which  endured  to  the  end.  He  was  very  ambitious 
and  very  fond  of  glory,  ever  anxious  to  be  the  actor  himself  in 
the  best  and  greatest  deeds,  and  rejoicing  in  the  acquaintance 

*  Plutarch,  Vit.  Flaminini.  f  Ibid. 


142  TITUS    QUINCTIUS    FLAMINIUS. 

rather  of  those  who  needed  benefits  themselves,  than  of  those 
who  could  confer  them  upon  others,  esteeming  those  as  material 
for  the  promotion  of  his  own  virtue,  these  as  rivals  of  his  own 
glory. 

I  will  add  that  I  can  find  him  guilty  of  no  act — almost  alone 
of  his  countrymen — of  political  dishonesty,  or  of  social  turpi- 
tude. To  his  country  he  was  a  zealous,  ardent,  and  profitable 
servant ;  to  his  friends  and  associates  faithful  and  true ;  to  his 
enemies  just  and  clement ;  and  to  the  provincials,  subjected  to 
his  dominion,  a  governor  so  affable,  beneficent  and  equitable,  that 
when  he  left  their  shores  they  mourned  as  for  a  countryman,  al- 
most a  father  of  the  country. 

As  a  general,  he  committed  no  military  error ;  and  although 
his  command  was  limited  to  little  more  than  two  campaigns, 
they  were  campaigns  of  the  most  important — important  not 
merely  to  his  own  country,  but  to  the  science  of  war  in  gene- 
ral— since  they  established,  beyond  a  peradventure,  the  supe- 
riority of  the  tactic  and  armature  of  the  legion  to  those 
of  the  phalanx ;  in  other  words,  of  the  line  to  the  column 
tactic. 

I  give  to  him  this  credit,  unhesitatingly  ;  for,  although  Pyc- 
rhus  was  at  last  beaten  with  the  phalanx  in  Italy,  it  was  rather 
by  dint  of  numbers  and  aid  of  circumstances  than  by  military 
skill ;  and  further,  it  is  evident  that  the  great  bTilk  of  his  ai-mies 
consisted  of  targeteers,  little  different  from  the  legionaries,  and 
of  Samnites,  Tarentines,  and  other  Italian  soldiery  precisely  sim- 
ilar to  them,  in  arms  and  array. 

Again,  although  Sulpicius  had  demonstrated  the  superiority 
of  the  individual  Roman,  to  the  individual  Greek  heavy  foot- 
mau ;  he  had  not — nor  any  one  else  hitherto — defeated  a  pha- 
lanx, unless  with  a  phalanx. 

When  Greeks  met  Greeks  then  was  the  tug  of  war. 


ELECTED    CONSUL.  143 

For  the  rest,  the  battles  of  Paullus  JEmilius  against  Perseus, 
were  but  the  battles  of  Flamininus  against  the  father  of  Per- 
seus, less  ably  fought,  though  on  the  same  principles  at  last  suc- 
cessful. 

The  fact  remains,  that  from  the  battle  of  Cynoscephalse,  of 
which  anon,  to  the  end  of  ancient  history,  it  was  an  admitted 
fact,  that,  unless  on  a  very  narrow  and  perfectly  level  field,  where' 
both  its  flanks  were  securely  covered,  the  phalanx  could  not  re- 
ceive battle  from  the  legions  with  a  chance  of  success ;  and  that 
as  to  delivering  battle  on  wide  open  plains,  where  rapid  manoeu- 
vring and  counter-marching  could  be  resorted  to,  such  an  idea 
was  preposterous. 

Flamininus  was  educated  to  arms  from  his  very  boyhood,  and 
that  in  the  terrible  Italian  campaigns  of  Hannibal ;  through 
which  he  served  with  such  distinction  that  he  had  already  at- 
tained the  post  of  tribune  of  the  soldiers,  equal  to  the  modern  rank 
of  lieutenant-colonel,  under  that  daring  and  distinguished  leader, 
Marcus  Marcellus,  and  was  on  the  field  when  he  was  slain,  rashly 
periling  himself  in  an  afiair  of  out-posts  near  Venusia,  in  the 
year  of  Rome  546,  B.  C.  208,  and  in  the  sixtieth  year  of  his 
own  age. 

After  the  death  of  his  great  commander,  Flamininus  was  ap- 
pointed governor  of  Tarentum,*  in  the  capacity  of  quaestor,  on 
its  recapture  by  Fabius  Maximus ;  and  there  displayed  no  less 
ability  in  the  administration  of  justice  than  he  had  previously 
evinced  skill  and  courage  in  warfare.  Seven  years  afterward — 
at  the  early  age  of  thirty  years — he  was  elected  consul ;  and, 
although  opposed  by  the  veto*  of  the  tribunes  Fulvius  and 
Manlius  Curius  on  the  ground  that  he  lacked  twelve  years  of  the 
legitimate  age,  and  that  he  had  never  filled  the  intermediate 
grades  of  sedile  and  prsetor,  he  was  confirmed  by  the  senate,  and 
received  Macedonia  as  his  province  by  lot. 
*  Livy,  xxxiii.  8. 


144  TITUS    QUINCTIUS    FLAMINIUS. 

The  fact  is,  that  the  wars  of  Hannibal  had  by  this  time  taught 
the  Eomans  that  an  over  strict  adherence  to  prescriptive  formulae, 
in  times  of  national  peril,  is  disastrous ;  and  that  to  meet  the 
ablest  advei-saries  the  ablest  men  must  be  had,  whether  all  the 
theoretic  requisites  to  their  election  had  been  complied  with  or 
not. 

Therefore  Scipio,  the  elder  Mricanus,  was  sent  to  Spain  with 
proconsular  rank  and  a  consular  army,  before  he  was  of  the  just 
age  to  fill  a  praetorship. 

Therefore  Flamininus  was  elected  consul  at  thirty,  although 
the  constitution  expressly  declared  that  no  one  should  hold  that 
dignity  until  he  should  have  fully  attained  his  forty-second 
year. 

Such  laws  may  be,  perhaps,  generally  wise ;  but  the  breach 
of  them  is  always  so.  Nor  does  history  show  any  instances, 
worth  remark,  of  youthful  genius  elevated  by  the  popular  call 
to  early  station,  and  subsequently  found  unworthy,  from  the  days 
of  Alexander,  Scipio,  and  Flamininus,  to  those  of  Pitt  and  Na- 
poleon. 

Nor  do  I  believe  that  the  appointment  of  the  consuls  was 
really,  though  it  was  ostensibly,  left  to  the  chance  of  a  lot,  at 
least  in  times  of  actual  war,  and  national  emergency  ;  since  we 
invariably  find  the  best  man  sent  to  the  place  where  he  was  re- 
quired, which  could  not  always  have  occurred  fortuitously. 
Doubtless  those  who  superintended  the  balloting  had  some 
method  of  determining  the  result,  as  had  the  augurs  and  haru- 
spices  with  regard  to  omens  and  sacrifices. 

So  Flamininus  was  not  only  elected  consul  at  thirty,  but  ob- 
tained the  seat  of  the  great  war  for  his  province,  and  was  em- 
powered to  pick  nine  thousand  men,  horse  and  foot,  out  of  the 
Spanish  and  African  veterans,  inured  to  all  that  was  known  of 
warfare  in  those  days  by  the  campaigns  of  Hannibal  and  Scipio. 


DEFILES    OF    THE    AOUS.  145 

A  grand  occasion,  indeed,  and  a  superb  command  for  an  un- 
tried commander. 

It  appeal's  that  on  his  entering  upon  his  office,  Flamininus 
was  detained  some  time  at  Rome,  in  order  to  superintend  a 
fast  and  expiatory  sacrifice  on  account  of  certain  alleged  prodigies 
of  evil  import ;  but  it  is  certain  that  he  had  understood  the  con- 
sequences of  the  dilatory  operations  of  his  predecessors,  and  was 
resolute  not  to  fall  into  the  like  error.  He  sailed  from  Brundu- 
sium  for  the  island  of  Corey ra,  now  Corfu,  which  he  occupied 
with  eight  thousand  foot,  and  eight  hundred  horse,  much  earher 
in  the  season  than  the  preceding  consuls  had  been  wont  to  take 
the  field  :  and,  instantly  passing  over  to  the  main,  in  a  single 
line-of-battle  ship,  hurried  onward  by  forced  journeys  to  the  camp, 
and  superseded  Villius,  in  the  face  of  the  enemy. 

A  few  days  afterwards,  his  reinforcements  coming  up,  he  called 
a  council  of  war  to  determine  whether  a  direct  attack,  or  a  flank 
movement  through  Dassaretia,  was  to  be  preferred.  The  council, 
of  course,  determined  anything  rather  than  direct  action ;  but 
Flamininus,  perceiving  the  facilities  afforded  by  the  geography 
of  that  broken,  mountainous,  forest-clad  region,  intersected  by 
deep  ravines  and  impracticable  torrents,  to  the  protracting  of  the 
war,  resolved  to  take  the  bolder  and  more  prudent  course  of 
trying  conclusions,  at  once,  with  an  enemy  whose  object  it  evi- 
dently was  to  act  purely  on  the  defensive,  and  to  avoid  delivering 
battle. 

Yet,  determined-  as  he  was,  the  difficulties  of  the  ground  were 
so  great,  and  so  skilfully  had  Philip  availed  himself  of  every  de- 
fensible point,  or  coign e  of  vantage,  that  many  days  elapsed  before 
he  could  decide  on  the  mode  of  assault. 

The  river  Aous,  now  Vioza,  an  extremely  large  and  powerful 

river,  augmented  at  every  half  mile  by  fierce  mountain  torrents 

along  the  valley  of  which  is  the  most  direct  pass  into  Macedonia 

proper,  at  this  point  breaks  its  way  through  a  chain  of  exceed- 

7 


146  TITUS    QUINCTIUS    FLAMININUS. 

ingly  abrupt  and  precipitous,  though  not  very  lofty  mountains, 
and  forms  a  gorge  of  six  miles  in  length,  closely  resembling  that 
picturesque  defile  of  the  Delaware,  with  which  many  of  my 
readers  are  doubtless  familiar,  known  as  the  Water-Gap. 

Forced  into  a  space,  two-thirds  less  than  its  ordinary  breadth, 
the  Aous  has  here  cut  its  way  through  the  sohd  rock,  between 
the  mounts  Asnaus  and  Aeropus,  now  Nemertzika  and  Trebusin, 
respectively  to  the  left  and  right  of  the  defile,  which  here  runs 
nearly  south-eastward.  The  right-hand  mountain,  Aeropus  or 
Trebusin,  is  the  loftier  of  the  two,  descending  in  a  sheer  wall  of 
perpendicular  and  treeless  rock  to  the  brink  of  the  only  road, 
scarped  out  of  the  living  limestone  hke  a  cornice  above  the  tor- 
rent, which  bathes  the  base  of  the  opposite  hill,  leaving  no  level 
space  between. 

"  The  mountain  on  the  opposite  or  left  bank  of  the  river," 
says  Colonel  Leake,  whose  topography  of  the  Grecian  battles 
founded  on  minute  personal  inspection,  is  no  less  valuable  than 
interesting,  "  is  the  northern  extremity  of  the  great  ridge  of 
Nemertzika,  Asnaus,  much  lower  than  that  summit,  but  nearly 
equal  to  Trebusin  in  height.  At  the  top,  it  is  a  bare,  perpendi- 
cular precipice,  but  the  steep  lower  slope,  unlike  that  of  its  oppo- 
site neighbor,  is  clothed  with  trees  quite  to  the  river.  Through 
the  opening  between  them  is  seen  a  magnificent  variety  of  naked 
precipices  and  hanging  woods,  inclosing  the  broad  and  rapid 
stream  of  the  insinuating  river."* 

The  road,!  difficult  in  any  event  to  an  army,  if  defended,  is 
impracticable. 

In  this  prodigiously  strong  pass  Philip  had  taken  post,  occu- 
pying the  narrow  road  with  the  phalanx,  and  having  his  main 
body  hutted  comfortably  among  the  loose  crags  of  Aeropus,  on 
a  conspicuous  summit  of  which  was  pitched  his  own  royal  pavi- 

*  Leake.    Travels  in  Northern  Greece,  vol.  i.  p.  385. 
t  Plutarch.    Flamininus  3. 


THE    SKIRMISH.  147 

lion,  with  the  banner  of  Alexander  waving  over  it.  The  slopes 
of  the  opposite  hill,  Asnaus,  was  held  by  Athenagoras,  his  lieu- 
tenant, with  the  light  troops,  and  all  the  flanking  crags  and 
salient  angles  of  the  precipitous  hills  were  mounted  with  the 
tremendous  military  engines,  which,  though  of  common  use  in 
the  defence  and  attack  of  the  fortresses,  had  never  been  brought 
into  field  service  until  now. 

Immediately  in  front  of  this  stern  mountain  gateway  extended 
a  small  plain,  midway  between  the  Roman  camp  and  the  Mace- 
donian lines ;  and  here,  afccr  a  fruitless  parley  and  attempt  at 
accommodation,  from  which  both  parties  retired  so  much  exaspe- 
rated at  their  mutual  pertinacity,  that  the  river,  which  divided 
them,  alone  prevented  their  personal  conflict,  the  hght  troops 
met  in  action  from  both  armies. 

It  is  scarce  to  be  conceived  how,  with  such  obstacles  against 
them,  the  Romans  could  have  escaped  destruction ;  but  it  is 
almost  ever  the  case  in  mountain  warfare  that  the  attacking 
party  is  successful. 

The  gray  mists  of  the  early  summer  morning  were  still  nest- 
ling among  the  crags,  and  brooding  in  the  deep  glades  of  the 
hanging  woods,  when  the  long,  shrill  blasts  of  the  Roman 
trumpets  announced  the  impetuous  rush  of  the  light  troops; 
and  on  they  went,  headlong  and  invincible,  carrying  all  before 
them,  and  driving  in  the  Macedonian  skirmishers  like  the  foam 
of  the  Adriatic  before  the  fury  of  the  south-east  wind. 

There  was  no  dust  upsurging  fi-om  the  i-ocky  road  to  shroud 
their  advance,  no  smoke-clouds  to  veil  them  from  the  shot  of 
the  enemy's  artillery.  With  their  bright  armor  flashing  in  the 
sunbeams,  as  they  streamed  down  the  gaps  in  the  mountain 
summits,  and  their  blood-red  banners  and  tall  plumes  tossing  in 
the  light  morning  air,  on  they  came,  dazzUng  and  unobscured, 
a  fair  mark  for  the  deadly  missiles,  arrows  shot  off  in  volleys, 
vast  javelins  which  no  human  arm  could  launch,  and  mighty 


148  TITUS    QUINCTIUS    FLAMININUS. 

stones  hurled  from  the  catapults,  as  if  from  modern  ordnance, 
which  tore  their  ranks  asunder,  and  levelled  whole  files  to  the 
earth  at  a  blow. 

But  their  extraordinary  discipline  and  admirable  armature 
enabled  them  to  endure  the  storm ;  and  they  made  their  way 
through  all  opposition,  until  they  met  the  phalanx,  bristling 
with  its  impenetrable  pikes,  its  flanks  impregnably  protected  by 
the  rocks  here,  by  the  river  there,  and  its  narrow  front  offering 
no  point  assailable.  Then  they  were  checked  ;  but,  even  then, 
not  beaten  back,  so  stubborn  was  their  Koman  hardihood,  so 
firm  their  resolution  to  be  slain,  not  conquered. 

All  day  long  did  that  deep  glen  quake  and  shudder  to  the 
dread  sounds  of  the  mortal  conflict ;  the  thundering  crash  of  the 
huge  stone  shot,  shivering  the  trees  and  shivered  on  the  crags  ; 
the  hurtling  of  the  terrible  falaricce ;  the  clash  and  clang  of 
steel  blades  and  brazen  bucklers ;  the  whirlwind  of  the  charging 
hoi-se ;  the  shouts  and  shrieks  and  death-groans ;  the  thrilling 
trumpets  of  the  legions ;  the  solemn  paeans  of  the  phalanx. 

Only  when  the  sun  set,  and  the  full,  round  moon  came  soar- 
ing coldly  up  above  the  tree-tops,  flooding  the  bloody  stream  of 
the  Aous,  and  the  corpse-incumbered  gorge,  with  silver  radiance, 
did  the  weary  and  shattered  hosts  draw  ofl"  to  their  respective 
camps,  from  a  strife  so  justly  balanced,  that  none  could  say 
which  had  come  off  the  better,  none  judge  on  which  side  the 
more  or  the  better  men  had  fallen. 

That  night,  Fiamininus  sat  in  his  tent  alone,  anxious,  uncertain 
how  to  proceed,  so  terrible  had  been  the  loss  of  life,  and  so 
small  the  ad  vantage;  when  a  shepherd  was  introduced,  sent  by 
Charops,  the  prince  of  the  ^tolians,  who  should  conduct  a 
detachment,  by  a  wild  mountain  foot-path,  to  a  height  in  the 
enemy's  rear,  domineering  his  whole  position. 

Four  thousand  chosen  veterans  of  infantry  and  three  hundred 


TURNING    THE    RIGHT.  140 

horse,  under  a  tribune  of  the  soldiers,  were  detailed,  instantly, 
for  the  service,  which  would  occupy  three  days. 

They  should  march  all  night  long,  such  were  their  orders,  for 
the  summer  moon  was  at  its  full,  and  the  nights  light  as  day 
and  far  more  pleasant,  as  being  soft  with  fragrant  dews  and  the 
cool  mountain  air.  By  day,  they  should  halt  in  some  deep, 
bosky  dell  or  forest  glade,  to  rest  and  refresh  themselves  securely. 
So  far  as  the  nature  of  the  ground  should  admit,  the  cavalry 
would  lead  the  way,  then  halt  on  the  last  level.  The  vantage 
ground  once  gained,  they  should  kindle  a  fire  on  the  summit, 
but  abstain  from  all  active  demonstration,  till  they  should  perceive 
the  action  in  the  defile  at  its  height.  Such  were  their  orders ; 
and  in  high  hope  they  parted,  carrying  with  them  as  a  guide 
the  shepherd,  in  chains,  as  a  precaution  against  treachery,  but 
encouraged  by  great  proinises,  if  faithful. 

On  the  two  following  days,  Flamininus  skirmished  continually 
with  his  light  troops  against  Philip's  outposts,  relieving  his  men 
by  divisions,  more  to  divert  the  attention  of  the  enemy  from  the 
stratagem  which  was  in  progress,  than  with  any  design  to  harass 
him  ;  though  in  both  points  of  view  he  succeeded  admirably  ;  for 
the  superiority  of  the  Roman  light  infantry  soldier  to  the  Greek 
skirmisher  was  great  indeed,  and  the  Macedonians  lost  many 
and  good  men. 

On  the  third*  morning,  secure  that  all  had  gone  well  so  far, 
by  the  immovable  attitude  of  the  enemy,  neither  elevated  by  any 
unexpected  success,  nor  shaken  by  any  suspicion  of  his  danger, 
the  consul  drew  up  his  legionary  cohorts,  in  solid  column  of 
maniples,  along  the  rocky  road,  before  the  sun  had  yet  risen,  and 
while  the  mountain  mists  still  covered  the-  distant  peaks  with  an 
impenetrable  veil. 

His  light  troops,   advanced  on  both. flanks,  pressed  forward 
along  the  difficult  hill-sides,  dashing  the  heavy  dew  in  showere 
*  Plutarch,  vit.  Flaminini,  iv.  v.     Livy,  xxxii.  12. 


150  TITUS    QUINCTIUS    FLAMININUS. 

fwm  the  dripping  underwood,  and  threatening  the  camps  of 
Philip  and  Athenagoras  both  at  once,  with  loud  shouts  and  a 
storm  of  missiles. 

Then  were  renewed  the  splendor,  the  obstinacy,  and  the  car- 
nage of  the  first  encounter.  Again  the  Roman  voltigeurs  drove 
in  the  enemy's  outposts ;  and  beat  back  the  targeteei-s,  who 
saUied  from  their  works  eager  for  the  fray,  from  post  to  post, 
till  they  came  within  range  of  the  artillery,  when  in  their  turn 
they  began  to  suffer  heavily. 

But  at  this  instant  the  sun  arose ;  the  mists  melted  gradually 
away  from  the  bare  peaks,  which  now  stood  forth  glittering  in 
the  hazy  sunshine.  With  indescribable  anxiety  the  eyes  of 
Flamininus  were  riveted  upon  the  distant  crag,  indicated  as  the 
decisive  point.  There  was  a  vapor  floating  round  it  dull  and 
indistinct,  and  browner  than  the  blue  mist  wreaths — but  was  it, 
could  it  be,  the  smoke- signal  ? 

For  a  time  all  was  an  agony  of  doubt  and  suspense.  His 
officers  gathered  about  the  consul ;  the  legionaries,  seeing  their 
commanders'  eyes  all  turned  in  one  direction,  gazed  that  way 
also,  anxious  if  ignorant. 

Browner  the  vapor  grew  and  browner ;  now  it  soared  upward, 
black  as  a  thunder-cloud,  darkening  the  azure  skies,  a  manifest 
smoke-signal. 

Jove  I  what  a  shout  arose  from  the  now  triumphant  cohorts  ! 
What  a  thrilling  shriek  of  the  shrill  trumpets,  answered  faintly 
and  remotely,  as  if  from  the  skies,  by  another  Eoman  blast,  but 
hker  to  the  scream  of  the  mountain-vulture  than  to  the  clangor 
of  pealing  brass  ! — what  a  clang  as  of  ten  thousand  stithies, 
when  the  Spanish  blades  smote  home  upon  the  Macedonian 
targes ! 

Yet  still  the  men  fell  fast  on  both  sides,  although  the  Romans 
won  their  way,  in  spite  of  artillery  and  pike  and  sling-shot,  at 
the  sword's  point;  for  the  Greeks  still  fought  stubbornly,  and 


THE    VICTORY.  151 

plied  their  dreadfal  engines  with  deUberate  aim  at  point  blank 
range,  unconscious  that  they  were  surrounded. 

Then  came  the  Latin  cheers,  and  the  clang  of  arms,  out  of 
the  clouds,  rolling  down  the  mountain  side,  on  their  flank,  in 
their  rear ;  the  rush  of  charging  horse  ! — In  an  instant  they 
broke,  disbanded,  scattered,  deserted  their  defences — all  was 
over. 

In  the  first  instance  the  panic  and  route  of  the  Macedonians 
were  absolute ;  and  so  utterly  disheartened  and  terror-stricken 
were  the  men,  that,  had  it  been  possible  to  pursue  them  effec- 
tually, the  whole  army  must  have  laid  down  its  arms  or  have 
been  cut  to  pieces. 

The  ground,*  however,  was  for  the  most  part  impracticable 
to  cavalry,  and  their  heavy  armature  rendered  the  legions  as  in- 
efficient in  pursuit  as  formidable  in  close  combat.  About  two 
thousand  only  of  the  Macedonians  fell,  more  in  the  battle  than 
in  the  route ;  but  the  whole  of  the  formidable  defences,  on  which 
they  had  expended  so  much  time  and  toil,  were  carried  at  a 
blow,  all  their  superb  artillery,  their  camp,  their  baggage,  rich 
with  the  barbaric  pomp  of  the  Macedonian  royalty,  all  their  camp 
followers  and  slaves,  remained  the  prizes  of  the  victors. 

Philip,  after  he  had  fled  five  miles  from  the  field,  that  is  to 
say,  so  far  as  to  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  defile  he  had  fruit- 
lessly endeavored  to  defend,  at  length  perceiving  that  he  was  un- 
pursued,  and  suspecting  the  reason,  halted  on  a  steep  ktioll 
covering  the  entrance  of  the  pass,  and  sending  out  parties  along 
the  ridges  and  through  the  ravines  with  which  they  were  fami- 
liar, soon  collected  all  his  men  about  his  standard  save  those 
whom  he  had  left  on  the  field  of  battle,  never  to  rouse  to  the 
trumpet  or  rally  to  the  banner  any  more. 

Thence  he  retreated  rapidly  down  the  valley  of  the  Aous,  or 
Yioza,  in  a  south-easterly  direction  to  a  place  called  the  camps 
*  Livy,  xxxii.  12. 


152  TITUS    QITINCTIUS    FLAMININUS. 

of  Pyrrhus,  supposed  to  be  Ostanitza,  near  the  junction  of  the 
Voidhomati  and  Yioza,"^  where  he  passed  the  night ;  and  thence 
by  a  prodigious  forced  march  of  nearly  fifty  miles  reached  Mount 
Lingon  on  the  following  day,  where  he  remained  some  time  in 
doubt  whither  to  turn  his  steps,  and  how  to  frame  his  further 
operations. 

Mount  Lingon  is  the  eastern  and  loftiest  extremity  of  a  great 
chain  of  hills,  dividing  Macedonia  proper  from  Thessaly  on  the 
.  east  and  Epirus  on  the  west.  It  forms  a  huge,  triangular  bas- 
tion, its  northern  base  overlooking  Macedonia,  and  its  apex 
facing  due  southward,  which  is  in  fact  the  water-shed  between 
the  three  great  rivers,  Aous  or  Vioza  flowing  north-westward 
into  the  Adriatic,  Peneus  or  Salamvria  flowing  eastward  into  the 
^ulf  of  Saloniki,  and  Aracthus  or  Arta,  which  has  a  southerly 
course  into  the  gulf  of  the  same  name,  famous  in  after  days  for 
the  naval  catastrope  of  Actium.f  The  flanks  of  this  ridge  are 
steep,  difficult  and  heavily  timbered,  but  its  summits  are  green 
with  rich,  open  downs,  and  watered  by  perennial  springs  and 
fountains,  an  admirable  post  of  observation,  and  commanding 
the  descent  into  all  the  great  plains  of  Northern  Greece.  After 
mature  dehberation,  Philip  retreated  still  south-eastward  to 
Tricca,  now  Trikkala,  on  the  Peneus ;  and,  though  with  a  sore 
heart,  devastated  his  own  country,  wasting  the  fields  and  burning 
the  cities.  Such  of  the  population  as  were  capable  of  following 
his  marches,  with  their  cattle  and  movables,  he  swept  along 
"with  him ;  all  else  was  given  up  as  plunder  to  his  soldiers,  so 
that  no  region  could  suffer  aught  more  cruel  from  an  invader 
than  did  Thessaly  at  the  hands  of  its  legitimate  defender. 
Pherae  shut  her  gates  against  him,  and  since  he  could  not  spare 
the  time  to  besiege  it,  for  the  ^tolians  were  coming  up  with 
him   rapidly,   having   laid    waste  all   the   country   around  the 

*  Leake.    Travels  in  Northern  Greece,  i.  296. 
t  Livy,  xxxii.  13. 


SIEGE    OF    ATRAX.  153 

Sperchias  and  Macra,  and  made  themselves  masters  of  many 
strong  towns,  he  made  the  best  of  his  way  back  to  the  frontiers 
of  Macedonia. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  consul,  after  his  victory,  followed  so 
hard  on  the  track  of  his  defeated  enemy,  that  on  the  fourth  or 
fifth  day,  after  re-organizing  his  forces  and  taking  up  the  pur- 
suit in  earnest,  he  reached  Mount  Cercetium,  some  fifty  miles  in 
advance  of  Philip's  deserted  station  on  Lingon,  where  he  had 
given  rendezvous  to  Amynander  and  his  Athamanians,  whom 
he  needed  as  guides  for  the  interior  of  Thessaly.  Thereafter,  he 
stormed  Phaloria,  received  Piera  and  Metropolis  into  surrender, 
and  laid  siege  to  Atrax,  a  strong  place,  not  far  from  Larissa,  on' 
the  Peneus,  about  twenty  miles  above  the  celebrated  pass  of 
Tempe,  in  which  Philip  lay  strongly  intrenched  watching  his 
movements,  and  not  more  than  forty  from  the  shores  of  the 
JEgean.  This  small  place,  however,  garrisoned  by  Macedonians, 
offered  so  stubborn  a  resistance  that  Flamininus  was  unable  to 
take  it,  until  the  season  was  waxing  so  far  advanced,  that,  find- 
ing the  devastated  plains  of  Thessaly  utterly  inadequate  to  the 
support  of  his  army,  and  having  no  harbors  on  the  coast  of 
Acamania  or  j^Etolia  in  his  rear,  capable  of  receiving  transports 
sufficient  to  supply  him,  he  judged  it  best  to  raise  the  siege,  and 
fall  back  to  winter-quarters  in  Phocis,  on  the  shores  of  the  gulf 
of  Corinth,  leaving  the  whole  of  Thessaly  ruined,  and  its  princi- 
pal towns  either  destroyed  by  Philip,  or  occupied  by  his  own 
garrisons. 

During  these  proceedings  of  the  consul  by  land,  his  brother, 
Lucius  Quinctius,  who  commanded  the  fleet  destined  to  co-ope- 
rate in  the  war,  acting  in  conjunction  with  Attains  and  the  Rho- 
dian  squadron,  had  made  himself  master  of  Eretria,  Calchis,  and 
Carystus,  the  strongholds  and  principal  towns  of  Euboea,  winning 
enormous  booty,  and  stationed  himself  at  Cenchreae,  at  the  head 
of  the  gulf  of  Eghina,  whence  he  was  preparing  to  lay  siege  to 


154  TITCS    QUINCTIUS    FLAMININUS. 

Corinth,  the  most  opulent  and  splendid  of  all  the  Greek  cities, 
now  held  by  a  strong  Macedonian  garrison,  backed  by  a  power- 
ful faction  within  the  walls  for  Philip. 

Marching  down  into  Phocis  without  opposition,  for,  except  the 
garrisons  of  a  few  scattered  towns,  there  was  no  force,  on  this 
side  Macedonia,  adverse  to  the  Romans,  Flamininus  took  Phano- 
tea  by  assault,  admitted  Ambrysus  and  Hyampolis  to  surrender, 
scaled  the  walls  of  Anticyra,  entered  the  gates  of  Daulis  pell- 
mell  with  the  garrison  which  had  sallied,  and  laid  regular  siege 
to  Elatia,  which  was  too  strong  to  be  taken  by  a  coup-de-main. 
The  capture  and  sacking  of  this  town  was  the  last  military  ope- 
ration of  the  campaign. 

A  political  event  occurred,  however,  at  the  close  of  it,  which 
was  even  of  greater  influence  in  the  end,  than  all  the  victories  of 
the  year,  the  ratification  namely  of  a  treaty  of  alliance  between 
the  powerful  Achaean  confederacy  and  the  Roman  republic,  by 
the  consequences  of  which,  joined  to  the  events  of  the  past  cam- 
paign, all  northern  Greece  from  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth  to  the 
line  formed  by  the  Abus  and  Peneus  rivers,  and  the  ridges  of 
Lingon  and  Cercetium,  was  united  under  the  eagles  of  the  re- 
pubhc  against  Philip.  Within  that  region,  however,  the  two 
splendid  cities — Corinth,  the  siege  of  which  by  Attains  and 
Lucius  Quinctus  had  proved  unsuccessful,  and  Argos — still  held 
out  for  the  king,  and  it  was  evident  that  another  campaign  would 
be  needed  for  the  termination  of  the  war. 

Well  satisfied  with  bis  success,  as  he  had  indeed  cause  to  be, 
for  few  campaigns  on  record  have  more  fully  and  masterly  accom- 
plished their  end,  Flamininus  retired  into  winter  quarters  in  the 
island  of  Corfu,  while  Attains  and  the  propraetor  Lucius  laid  up 
their  fleets  in  the  Piraeus,  and  passed  the  season  of  inactivity 
within  the  walls  of  Athens. 

During  the  winter,  after  the  election  of  the  new  consuls,  Cains 
Cornelius  Cethegus,  and  Marcus  Minutius  Ritfus,  but  b-fore  it 


%  CONFERENCE   OF  LEADERS.  155 

was  known  whether  the  conduct  of  the  war  would  be  continued 
to  Flamininus  or  one  of  the  consuls  appointed  his  successor,  a 
sedition  broke  out  in  the  town  of  Opus,  and  the  inhabitants  ad- 
mitted the  Romans.  The  Macedonian  gariison,  however,  still 
held  out,  and  while  Flamininus  was  preparing  to  reduce  it,  a 
herald  arrived  from  the  kingy  demanding  an  interview  in  order 
to  treat  of  peace.  To  this  the  consu],  naturally  desirous  to  con- 
clude the  war  himself,  acceded,  and  a  singular  interview  fol- 
lowed. 

A  place  was  appointed  on  the  shore  of  the  gulf  of  Zituni,  near 
Nic3ea,  and  thither  came  the  Roman  general,  Amynander  king 
of  the  Athamanes,  Dionysodorus  envoy  of  Attains,  Agesim- 
brotus  admiral  of  the  Rhodian  fleet,  Phseneas  prince  of  the 
^tolians,  and  with  them  two  Achaeans,  Aristaenus  and  Xeno- 
phon.  These  overland.  But  Philip  came  across  from  Deme- 
trias,  now  Volo,  with  one  ship  of  war  and  five  single-banked  gal- 
leys, and  casting  anchor  as  close  as  might  be  to  the  shore,  ad- 
dressed the  confederates  from  the  prow  of  his  ship. 

Flamininus  proposed  that  he  should  land,  in  order  that  they 
might  converse  more  at  their  ease  ;  and,  on  the  king's  refusing, 
inquired  who  it  was  of  the  company  whom  he  feared. 

*'  I  fear  none  but  the  immortal  gods,"  was  the  haughty  reply ; 
"  but  I  distrust  many  whom  I  see  around  thee,  and  most  of  all 
the  j^tolians." 

"  That,"  replied  the  Roman,  is  a  peril  common  to  all  who 
parley  with  an  enemy,  that  they  can  place  confidence  in  no 
one." 

"  Nay,  Titus  Quinctius,"  answered  Philip,  "  but  Philip  and 
Phseneas  are  not  equal  inducements  to  ti*eason ;  and  it  is  one 
thing  for  the  ^tohans  to  find  another  general,  and  for  the  Ma- 
cedonians to  find  another  king  such  as  I  am." 

To  this  argument  there  was  no  reply  but  silence."^  Nor, 
*  Livy,  xxxii.  32. 


156  TITUS    QUINCTIUS    FLAMININUS.  0 

whon  they  came  to  speak  of  conditions,  could  any  terms  be 
eflfected  among  so  many  jarring  interests  ;  but  it  was  agreed  at 
'length  that  ambassadors  should  be  sent  by  all  the  contracting 
parties  to  the  Senate.  A  truce  was  proclaimed  for  two  months, 
Philip  withdrawing,  as  a  security  for  his  good  faith,  the  gar- 
risons from  all  the  towns  of  Locris  and  Phocis  ;  while  Flamini- 
nus,  in  order  to  give  color  to  the  proceedings,  sent  with  the  am- 
bassadors Amynander  king  of  the  Athamanes,  Quinctius  Fabius, 
his  wife's  nephew,  Quinctius  Fulvius,  and  Appius  Claudius,  all 
members  of  his  military  family. 

After  a  while  the  delegates  returned.  The  Senate  had  given 
no  decision.  The  province  and  war  of  Macedonia,  when  the 
consuls  were  about  to  cast  lots,  had  been  continued  to  Flamini- 
nus  as  imperator,  the  tribunes  Oppius  and  Fulvius  having  strong- 
ly represented  the  impolicy  of  removing  general  after  general,  as 
fast  as  each  got  accustomed  to  the  country  and  was  ready  to 
follow  up  a  first  success  by  a  final  victory.  The  argument  pre- 
vailed, and  the  option  of  peace  or  war  was  left  to  the  imperator. 
The  Senate  was  not  aweary  of  the  strife,  and  Flamininus  was 
athirst  for  glory,  not  for  peace. 

No  further  parley  was  granted  to  Philip ;  and  these  terms 
only  dictated  to  him,  that  he  must  withdraw  his  forces  from  the 
whole  of  Greece  into  his  own  proper  dominions,  north  of  the 
river  Aous  and  the  Cambunian  mountains. 

This  was  of  course  tantamount  to  a. resumption  of  hostihties  ; 
and  both  parties,  it  appears,  prepared  with  equal  alacrity  and 
confidence  for  the  final  conflict. 

The  first  operation  of  Philip,  who,  on  finding  the  necessity  of 
drawing  all  his  resources  to  a  common  centre,  began  to  despair  of 
maintaining  Corinth,  Argos  and  his  Achaean  cities,  was  to  deliver 
them  over  for  safe  keeping  to  Nabis,  tyrant  of  Lacedsemon,  on  con- 
dition that  in  case  of  his  being  successful  against  the  Romans  they 
should  be  restored  to  himself,  otherwise  they  should  belong  to 
Nabifl. 


THE    ARMY.  15 7 

No  sooner  was  that  done,  however,  than  the  treacherous  t}^- 
rant,  desirous  only  to  retain  his  new  power,  made  peace  with  the 
jSJtolians,  furnished  the  Romans  with  Cretan  auxiliaries  to  act 
against  Philip,  and  even  entered  into  illusory  negotiations  for 
the  delivery  of  Corinth  and  Argos,  than  which  nothing  was  far- 
ther from  his  mind,  until  at  least  he  should  have  plundered  them 
of  all  they  contained  most  valuable,  and  this,  with  his  wife's  aid, 
he  lost  no  time  in  doing. 

These  circumstances,  however,  were  but  as  mere  prehides  to 
the  great  strife  which  was  about  to  be  determined  in  the  broken 
and  uneven  country  of  north-eastern  Thessaly,  not  far  from  the 
ground  on  which  Flamininus  had  closed  his  last  campaign,  to 
the  southwaiid  of  the  Peneus,  whither  both  parties  were  already 
collecting  their  powers  and  drawing  to  a  head. 

Almost  before  the  opening  of  the  spring,  both  leaders  were  on 
the  alert,  and  active  in  preparation  ;  partly  by  stratagem  and  the 
insinuation  of  a  menace,  if  not  its  reality,  partly  by  persuasion, 
Flamininus  had  the  address  to  bring  over  the  Boeotians,  as  he 
had  already  brought  over  the  Achaeans,  to  the  Roman  alliance ; 
and  thenceforth,  every  thing  in  his  rear  being  secure  and  friend- 
ly, he  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  look  forward  and  beni  up  all 
his  energies  and  powers  to  the  destruction  of  the  enemy  before 
him. 

To  this  end  he  was  well  provided ;  for  when  his  command 
was  continued  to  him,  five  thousand  infantry,  three  hundred 
horse,  and  three  thousand  mariners  of  the  Latin  allies,  were 
voted  him  as  a  reinforcement  to  his  late  victorious  army. 

With  these  admirable  troops,  then,  he  broke  up  from  Elatia, 
his  last  conquest,  about  the  vernal  equinox,  and  marching  north- 
westerly by  the  great  road  through  Thronium  and  Scarphea,  on 
the  gulf  of  Zituni,  arrived  at  Thermopylae,  where,  by  a  pre-cuu- 
certed  plan,  he  met  the  ^Etolians  in  council,  and  three  (\t\ys 
afterward,  encamping  at  Xynias  in  Thessaly,  received  their  con- 


158  TITUS    QUINCTIUS    FLAMINIUS. 

tingent  of  six  hundred  foot  and  four  hundred  horse,  under  Phae- 
neas  their  chief  magistrate.  Moving  forward  at  once  with  the 
celerity  and  decision  which  mark  all  his  operations,  his  force  was 
augmented  by  five  hundred  Cretans  of  Gortyna,  under  Oydas, 
and  three  hundred  Illyrians  of  Apollonia,  all  light  infantry  skilled 
with  the  bow  and  sling ;  and  a  few  days  afterward  he  was  joined 
by  Amynander  with  twelve  hundred  Athamanians,  completing 
the  nruster  of  the  allies. 

Philip  meanwhile  was  laboring  under  the  sore  disadvantage 
which  is  sure  to  afflict,  and  in  the  end  overthrow,  all  nations 
which  engage  in  long  careers  of  conquest.  Incessant  wars,  smco 
the  days  of  Alexander,  had  worn  out  the  manhood  of  Macedoni*u 
His  own  wars  had  consumed  the  flower  of  the  adults,  and  tha;o 
who  remained  were  the  sons  of  mere  youths  or  of  octogenarians, 
begotten  while  the  men  of  Macedonia  were  fattening  foreign 
fields  with  priceless  gore. 

As,  in  the  last  campaigns  of  Napoleon,  Philip's  conscriptions 
of  this  year  included  all  the  youth  of  sixteen  yeai-s,  while  they 
recalled  to  the  stan  dard  all  the  discharged  veterans  who  had  yet 
power  to  trail  a  pike. 

So  certainly  in  all  ages  will  the  like  causes  produce  the  like 
effects. 

Of  this  material,  however,  he  had  constructed  a  complete 
phalanx  of  sixteen  thousand  men,  the  flower  of  hia  kingdom,  and 
the  last  bulwark  of  his  throne.  To  these  were  added  two  thou- 
sand native  targeteei*s,  two  thousand  Thracians  and  Illyrians, 
about  fifteen  hundred  mercenaries  of  all  countries,  and  two  thou- 
sand horse.  With  this  power  he  lay  at  Dium,  now  Malathria, 
on  the  gulf  of  Saloniki,  awaiting  the  Romans,  by  no  means  de- 
spondent, but  rather  confident  of  success  For  although  the 
last  campaign  had  gone  against  him,  as  a  whole,  still  the  repulse 
of  the  Romans  from  the  walls  of  Atrax  by  hard  fighting,  seerned 
to  counterbalance  the  forcing  of  the  gorges  of  the  Aous,  while 


SKIRMISHES.  169 

it  was  undeniable  that  the  phalanx  had  fully  maintained  its  an- 
cient renown,  and  was,  for  all  that  had  jei  been  proved,  invinci- 
ble in  a  pitched  battle. 

No  less  secure  of  victory,  flushed  with  past  triumphs,  and 
athirst  for  future  glory,  Quinctius  pressed  on,  resolved  on  the 
first  occasion  to  deliver  battle,  his  forces  being,  as  nearly  ay  pos- 
sible, equal  to  those  of  the  king,  though  he  had  a  superiority  of 
about  four  hundred  horse. 

On  hearing  of  the  Roman  advance,  Philip  broke  up  from 
Dium  and  marched  upon  Larissa,  intending  to  deliver  battle 
south  of  the  Peneus,  with  a  view  probably  to  the  subsequent 
defense  of  the  defiles  of  Tempe  in  case  of  disaster;  while  Fla- 
mininus  having  failed  in  an  attempt  to  surprise  the  Ptbiotic  city 
of  Thebes,  marched  direct  upon  Pherse,  previously  ordering  his 
soldiers  to  cut  and  carry  with  them  the  palisades,  of  which  at 
any  moment  to  fortify  the  casual  encampment  of  the  night. 
m.  Both  leaders,  thus  aware  of  the  enemy's  proximity,  yet  un- 
aware of  his  exact  position,  encamped  and  fortified  their  camps, 
the  Roman  at  about  six,  the  Macedonian  at  four  miles'  distance 
from  the  town  of  Pherse. 

On  the  following  day,  light  parties  being  sent  out  on  both 
sides  to  take  possession  of  the  heights  above  the  town,  which 
would  seem  to  be  the  western  slopes  of  Karadagh,  formerly 
Mount  Calcodonium — described  by  Leake  as  gentle  pasture  hills, 
interspersed  with  groves  of  oak,  but  swelling,  a  little  northward 
on  the  way  to  Larissa,  into  steep,  broken  hills,  topped  with  bare 
limestone  crags — they  came  in  sight  of  one  another  so  unex- 
pectedly, that  they  were  mutually  amazed,  and  neither  charged 
the  other,  but  both  sent  back  for  orders  to  head-quarters,  and 
were  ultimately  drawn  off  without  fighting.  On  the  second 
day,  both  leaders  sent  out  reconnoitering  parties  of  light-aruiel 
infantry  with  some  horse,  and  these  encountered  on  the  hill 
above  the  suburbs  of  Pherse  to  the  northward.     It  so  happened 


160  TITUS    QUINCTIUS    FLAMININUS. 

that  Flaminiiius  had  ordered  two  squadrons  of  ^  toll  an  horse  on 
this  duty,  wishing  to  avail  himself  of  their  familiarity  with  the 
country  ;  and  these,  overboiling  with  courage  and  emulous  of 
the  Roman  renown,  so  soon  as  they  discovered  the  enemy,  dared 
the  Italians  to  the  test  of  superior  valor,  and  charged  the  Mace- 
donians with  such  mettle  and  prowess  that  they  cut  them  up 
very  severely  ;  after  which,  having  skirmished  for  a  considerable 
time  with  no  decisive  results,  they  drew  off,  as  if  by  mutual  con- 
sent, to  their  own  encampments. 

The  ground  about  Pherse,  being  much  incumbered  with  or- 
chards, groves,  and  gardens,  and  cut  up  by  stone  walls  and 
thorn  hedges,  was  very  unsuitable  for  a  general  action,  and  both 
leaders,  perceiving  this,  moved  early  the  next  morning  by  differ- 
ent routes,  the  great  ridge  of  Karadagh  intervening  between 
their  lines  of  march,  and  intercepting  all  sound  or  sight,  upon 
Scotussa,  a  town  some  ten  miles  distant  in  a  westerly  direction, 
lying  at  the  base  of  the  hills,  and  on  the  verge  of  the  plain.       • 

The  Romans  marched  to  the  southward,  Philip  to  the  north- 
ward of  the  dividing  ridge  ;  and,  unaware  how  nearly  they  were 
intrenched,  both  erected  their  palisades  for  the  night  almost 
within  hearing  of  their  countersigns  and  trumpets. 

The  third  morning,  after  they  had  decamped  from  Pherae, 
was  exceedingly  thick  and  foggy ;  but  in  spite  of  this  Philip, 
who  had  passed  the  night  on  the  banks  of  the  Onchestus,  perse- 
vered in  marching  upon  Scotussa,  where  he  hoped  to  find  ripe 
corn  in  the  plain  for  his  troops.  The  darkness,  however,  in- 
creased, and  ere  long  one  of  those  tremendous  thunder-storms, 
for  which  al  the  limestone  countries  of  upper  Greece  are  so 
famous,  or  rather  infamous,  burst  over  his  head,  with  hail,  and 
wild  whirling  wind-gusts,  and  forked  lightnings,  and  compelled 
him  to  halt  at  once  and  intrench  himself,  at  the  northern  base 
of  the  bare,  craggy  hills,  forming  the  summits  of  the  Calcodo- 


THE  dog's  heads,  161 

nium,  known  as  the  Cjnoscephalae  or  dog's  heads,  though  the 
resemblance  does  not  go  far  to  justify  the  appellation. 

So  soon*  as  it  cleared  a  little,  though  the  mist  was  still  so 
dense  that  one  could  scarce  see  his  own  hand,  he  sent  out  a 
detachment  to  occupy  the  heights  of  Cynoscephalge.  At  the 
same  moment  Flamininus  sent  out  his  troops  of  horse  and  a 
thousand  voltigeurs  from  Thetidium,  where  he  lay,  to  feel  for  the 
enemy. 

These  latter  fell  suddenly  into  the  ambushed  outposts  of  the 
Macedonians,  neither  discovering  the  others  till  they  were  at 
half  spear's  length  in  the  gloom.  After  a  momentary  pause  of 
amazement,  they  fell  on  fiercely,  and  among  the  slippery  crags, 
in  the  dense  mist  and  drizzling  rain,  the  strife  reeled  blindly  to 
and  fro,  all  striking  at  once,  none  parrying,  and  friend  as  often 
injuring  friend,  as  enemy  enemy.  On  both  sides,  rumor  reached 
the  camps,  and  the  Romans  being  hard  pressed  and  giving  way, 
Flamininus,  who  was  nearest  to  the  scene  of  action,  reinforced 
his  men  with  two  thousand  infantry  under  two  tribunes,  and  five 
hundred  JGtolian  horse  of  Archedamus  and  Eupolemus. 

On  the  arrival  of  these,  the  skirmish  was  exchanged  for  close 
combat ;  and  the  encouragement  given  to  the  Romans,  by  the 
prompt  succor,  doubling  their  courage,  nor  that  only,  but  their 
physical  strength,  they  charged  home  so  vehemently,  that  they 
broke  the  enemy,  and  drove  them  to  the  steep  crags ;  the  din  of 
battle  receding  from  the  lines  of  Flamininus,  until  the  cries  of 
his  own  men,  and  the  shouts  of  the  victorious  legionaries, 
aroused  and  alarmed  Philip  in  his  camp. 

He,  expecting  nothing  on  that  day  less  than  an  engagement, 
had  sent  out  his  men  to  forage  in  the  plain  ;  but  as  he  saw  how 
things  were  going,  and  as  the  mist  was  beginning  to  melt 
away  before  the  sunbeams,  and  the  clear  blue  to  show  above, 

=*  All  the  details  of  this  action  are  from  Polybius.  Reliquiae  Lib. 
xviii. ;  who  is  here  singularly  clear  and  vivid  in  his  description. 


162  TITUS    QUINCTIUS    FLAMININUS. 

he  ordered  up  Heracleides  the  Gyrtonian,  commander  of  the 
ThessaHan  cavahy,  and  Leon,  the  Macedonian,  master  of  the 
horse,  and  Athenagoras  with  all  the  mercenaries  save  the  Thra- 
cians,  and  launched  them  vigorously  against  the  enemy. 

Rallying  upon  themselves  the  broken  and  disordered  troops 
vi^ho  had  preceded  them,  these  in  turn  laid  on  with  so  heavy  a 
hand  and  so  furious  an  impetus  that  they  bore  the  Romans 
back  bodily,  and  drove  them  over  the  brink  of  the  heights  in 
consternation  and  disorder  toward  their  own  intrenchments ;  nor 
would  they  have  failed  to  do  fearful  execution  on  them,  if  not 
utterly  to  desti'oy  them,  but  for  the  devoted  gallantry  of  the 
handful  of  ^tolian  horse,  who  charged  them  time  after  time ; 
and,  when  repulsed,  rallied  and  charged  again ;  and  so  gained 
that  invaluable  time,  which,  as  it  was  in  this  case,  is  often 
victory. 

At  this  moment,  seeing  that  the  defeat  of  his  cavalry  and 
light  troops  was  not  only  serious  in  itself,  but  was  seriously  dis- 
piriting the  rest  of  his  army,  Flamininus  drew  out  his  legions  in 
order  of  battle,  harangued  them  briefly  in  words  of  fire,  which 
kindled  every  soldier's  heart  to  hke  passion,  and  led  them 
straightway  into  action. 

Almost  simultaneously,  Phihp,  to  whom  tidings  had  been 
brought  that  the  enemy  were  utterly  disordered  and  in  flight, 
and  who  was  compelled  by  the  urgency  of  his  oflScers  and  the 
eagerness  of  his  men  to  give  battle,  contrary  to  his  own  better 
judgment,  which  knew  the  ground  to  be  unfavorable  to  the 
phalanx,  led  the  right  wing  of  it  up  the  northern  ascent  of  the 
heights,  directing  Nicanor,  surnaraed  the  elephant,  to  bring  up 
the  centre  and  left  wing  close  at  his  heels.  On  reaching  the 
summit,  which  had  been  left  vacant  when  the  Macedonian  light 
troops  drove  back  the  Romans,  he  formed  line  of  battle  by  the 
left,  and  thus  gained  the  ground  of  vantage. 

But   while  he  was  yet  in  the  act  of  forming  his  rigbt,  the 


I 


THE    BATTLE.  163 

mercenaries  were  upon  him,  crushed  in  by  the  advance  of  the 
solid  cohorts;  for  Flamininus  had  raUied  his  light  troops  in  the 
intervals  of  his  maniples,  and  was  carrying  all  before  him  with 
great  slaughter,  himself  leading  his  left  wing,  the  right  and 
centre  being  a  little  retired,  with  the  elephants  in  front. 

Philip  thus  labored  at  once  under  a  double  disadvantage, 
when  believing  himself  the  assailant  of  a  disordered  foe,  he  found 
himself  assailed — a  perilous  thing  in  warfare — and,  secondly, 
when  he  was  compelled  to  encounter  an  enemy  in  full  array  of 
battle,  while  above  one  half  of  his  own  power  was  in  column  of 
march,  and  as  yet  unready  to  deploy. 

Up  to  this  moment,  the  day  had  been  one  of  accidents  and 
vicissitudes;  but  from  this  moment  it  was  one  of  the  finest 
generalship  and  the  finest  fighting ;  and  in  the  end  the  best 
fighting  carried  it. 

Mindful  of  the  rule  never  to  receive  a  charge  but  on  a  charge, 
so  soon  as  he  saw  Flamininus'  eagles  face  to  face  with  him, 
Philip  rallied  the  letreating  horse  and  mercenaries  upon  his  tar- 
geteers,  with  whom  he  covered  his  right  flank,  and  ordered  the 
phalanx  to  double  the  depth  of  its  files  and  prepare  to  charge. 

We  have  all  seen,  and  all  know  the  eflfect,  of  two  poor  lines  of 
modern  infantry  bringing  their  muskets  from  the  shoulder  to 
the  charge ;  the  thrill  which  the  sudden  clash  and  clatter,  and 
the  quick  flashing  movement  sends  to  the  boldest  heart — what 
then  must  have  been  the  effect  on  the  spectator,  when  sixteen 
serried  ranks  brought  down  their  huge  sarissse,  twenty-four  feet 
in  length,  from  the  port  to  the  level — the  rattle  of  the  massive 
truncheons  sloping  simultaneously,  like  a  whole  field  of  bearded 
grain  before  a  sudden  blast,  the  clang  of  the  steel  spear  heads 
against  the  brazen  bucklers,  and  the  glimmering  flash  of  seven 
points  protruded  in  advance  of  every  shield  in  the  front  line. 

Such  was  the  spectacle  which  met  the  eyes  of  the  legionaries  as 
they  crowned  the  heights  of  Cynoscephalse,  but  no  thrill  did  it 


164  TITUS    QUINCTIUS    FLAMININUS. 

send  to  those  stern  hearts,  but  that  of  ardor  and  of  emulation. 
Never  was  such  a  war-cry  heard  as  burst  that  day  over  the 
rugged  hills,  for  not  only  did  the  combatants  on  both  sides,  as 
they  rushed  to  hand  and  hand  encounter,  shout  with  their  hearts 
in  their  voices,  but  all  who  saw  it  from  a  distance  swelled  the 
tremendous  diapason. 

The  clang  might  have  been  heard  at  a  mile's  distance,  as  the 
pike-points  of  the  phalanx  smote  full  upon  the  bosses  of  the  long 
legionary  shields,  and  bore  back  the  loose  lines  by  sheer  force, 
orderly  still  and  unbroken  ;  while  the  Spanish  broadswords  of  the 
Romans  hewed  desperately,  but  in  vain,  into  the  twilight  forest 
of  the  impenetrable  sarissae. 

Stubbornly  the  Romans  fought  and  long;  and  when  at 
length  broken,  they  were  not  beaten  ;  when  borne  backward 
foot  by  foot  they  still  disdained  to  fly  ;  but  fell  where  they  stood 
and  died  fighting. 

But  Flamininus,  who  had  the  true  eye,  the  true  inspiration  of 
a  great  general,  ever  the  keenest  and  the  clearest  in  the  most 
direful  turmoil  of  the  headiest  fight,  had  marked,  like  Welhngton 
at  Talavera,  a  gap  in  the  enemy's  array. 

Leaving  his  broken  right  wing  to  its  fate,  he  rushed,  confident 
at  one  glance,  of  victory,  to  the  head  of  his  centre,  and  charged, 
with  his  elephants  in  front,  by  a  rapid  obhque  movement,  full 
upon  the  left  wing  of  the  phalanx,  as  it  mounted  the  heights  in 
marching,  rather  than  in  fighting,  order.  Here,  before  it  could 
form,  almost  before  it  could  level  its  long  pikes,  it  was  pierced 
in  a  hundred  places  at  once ;  and,  in  almost  less  time  than  is 
required  to  describe  it,  the  fierce  Spanish  broadswords  of  the 
legionaries,  fleshed  in  its  vitals,  had  reduced  it  to  a  weltering 
mass  of  inextricable  confusion  and  almost  unheard  of  carnage. 

The  Roman  left,  cheered  by  the  triumph  of  their  comrades, 
ralHed  upon  themselves  and  returned  to  the  charge ;  and  simul- 
taneously an  unordered  movement  of  a  tribune  of  the  soldiers, 


k 


THE      TRIBUNE.  165 

which  should  have  rendered  him  immortal,  although  his  name 
has  not  survived,  decided  the  victory,  as  completely  as  did  a 
like  inspiration,  on  the  part  of  the  unrewarded  Kellerman,  decide 
that  of  Marengo. 

This  nameless  tribune — a  shame  that  he  should  be  nameless — 
when  the  enemy's  left  and  centre  fled,  wheeled  with  a  mere 
handful  of  men  round  the  rear  of  Philip's  right,  and,  gaining  the 
very  summit  from  which  he  had  descended,  at  the  moment 
when  the  Romans  rallied  in  its  face,  fell  like  a  thunderbolt  on 
the  unguarded  rear  of  its  yet  unbroken  masses. 

In  any  event,  a  rear  or  flank  attack  upon  the  phalanx,  so  pon- 
derous a  column  that  it  could  even  when  unassailed  with  diffi- 
culty form  a  new  face,  was  perilous ;  here  it  was  fatal. 

The  battle  was  ended  as  by  a  thunderclap.  Of  the  Macedo- 
nians eight  thousand  fell  in  the  field,  five  thousand  laid  down 
their  arms  ;  their  camp  was  taken,  but  before  the  victors  entered 
it,  it  had  been  sacked  by  the  jEtolians  ;  their  king,  not  tarrying 
to  burn  his  papers  at  Larissa,  fled  without  drawing  bridle 
through  Tempe  into  Macedonia. 

Of  the  Romans  seven  hundred  lay  dead  in  their  ranks  on  the 
field ;  so  true  is  Sallust's  apothegm,  that  audacity  is  as  a  ram- 
part to  the  soldier,  and  flight  more  perilous  than  battle. 

It  was  not  a  battle  only  that  was  won,  but  a  war  that  was 
ended. 

Yet  never  was  a  battle  won  which  was  so  nearly  lost,  except 
Marengo  ;  which  it  in  several  points  resembles. 

In  the  fii-st  place,  like  Marengo,  it  was  in  fact  not  one,  but  two 
battles,  in  which  the  victors  of  the  first  were  the  vanquished  of 
the  second. 

In  the  second  place,  like  Marengo,  its  last  and  crowning  suc- 
cess was  due  to  an  unordered,  self-originating,  charge  of  a  subor- 
dinate officer,  with  a  mere  handful  of  men  on  the  flank  or  rear 
of  a  victorious  column. 


166  TITUS    QUINCTIUS    FLAMININUS.' 

But  in  this,  unlike  Marengo,  it  was  the  eagle  eye,  the  prompt 
decision,  and  the  lightning-hke  execution  of  the  general  in  chief, 
not  the  shrewd  observation  of  a  second  in  command,  that  re- 
deemed the  half  lost  battle,  and  changed  the  paeans  of  an  exult- 
ing conqueror  into  groans  of  anguish  and  despair. 

With  Cjnoscephalse,  terminates  the  splendor  of  Flamininus' 
military  career,  but  not  the  splendor  of  his  life. 

Philip  at  once  sued  for  peace,  and  the  general,  aware  that  a 
war  had  broken  out  between  Antiochus,  King  of  Syria,  and 
Eome,  and  dreading  PhiHp's  co-operation  with  him,  if  driven  to 
despair,  at  once  granted  him  terms. 

He  withdrew  all  his  garrisons  from  Greece  ;  delivered  all  his 
fleet,  with  the  exception  of  ten  galleys ;  paid  an  indemnification 
of  a  thousand  talents,  for  the  expenses  of  the  war ;  gave  up  his 
^n  Demetrius  as  a  hostage,  for  his  faithful  observance  of  the 
conditions;  and,  to  his  credit  be  it  spoken,  ever  continued  true 
in  his  allegiance  to  the  Romans. 

At  first,  apprehending  trouble  from  Antiochus,  the  Senate  de- 
termined to  keep  Ptoman  garrisons  in  the  three  strongholds  of 
Chalcis,  Corinth  and  Demetrias ;  but  so  loud  were  the  complaints 
of  the  Greeks  in  general,  of  the  ^tohans  in  particular,  and  so 
consistent  did  they  appear  to  Flamininus,  that  he  used  the  great 
personal  weight  and  influence  he  had  gained  with  the  people 
and  the  Senate,  not  to  obtain  pei*sonal  honors,  wealth  or  distinc- 
tion, but  to  procure  the  complete  liberation  of  Greece,  and  the 
withdrawal  of  every  foreign  soldier  from  her  confines. 

The  proudest  hour  of  his  life,  save  one,  was  when  he  sat  in 
his  curule  chair,  at  the  Isthmian  games,  a  spectator  of  the  show, 
and  heard  the  Roman  trumpet-blast  command  attention,  and  the 
Roman  herald  make  proclamation — "  The  Senate,  and  the  Ira- 
perator,  Titus  Quinctius,  having  subdued  King  Philip  and  the 
Macedonians,  give  to  the  Corinthians,  Locrians,  Phocians,  Eu- 
boeans,  Acha^ans,  Pthiotians,  Magnetians,  Thessahans,  and  Perr- 


FREEDOM    TO    GREECE.  167' 

hsebians,  liberty,  immunity  from  garrisons,  immunity  from 
tribute,  and  the  right  of  self-government,  according  to  their  own 
constitutions." 

At  first  men  heard  not,  or,  hearing,  beheved  not,  for  very  joy, 
that  such  happiness  could  be  ;  and  they  called  upon  the  herald 
to  repeat  his  proclamation. 

Then  such  a  shout  arose  as  rang  from  sea  to  sea  across  the 
Isthmus.  The  like  of  it  was  never  heard  before  or  afterward 
in  Greece.  And  what  has  often  been  said  hyperbolically,  to  lend 
grandeur  to  descriptions  of  the  human  voice,  was  then  actually 
seen  to  happen  ;*  for  crows  winging  their  way  over  the  amphi- 
theatre fell  into  the  arena,  stunned  by  the  concussion  of  the  air. 

As  one  man,  the  whole  theatre  stood  up.  There  was  no  more 
talk  of  the  combatants.  Every  one  spoke  of  Flamininus,  every 
one  would  touch  the  hand  of  the  champion,  the  liberator  of 
Greece. 

I  said  the  proudest  day  of  his  life,  save  one.  For  he  had  one 
prouder. 

Two  years  longer  he  tarried  among  the  Greeks,  as  commis- 
sioner to  see  the  treaties  carried  out ;  and  for  a  short  time  he 
fell  into  odium  with  the  people  he  had  liberated,  for  that,  when 
he  was  warring  f^gainst  Nabis,  the  cruel  tyrant  and  usurper  of 
Lacedaemon,  and  might  have  dethroned  him,  he  made  peace, 
and  suffered  him  to  retain  his  blood-bought  dominion.  Some 
were  so  base  as  to  attribute  this  to  jealousy  of  Philipoemen. 
His  own  statement,  and  our  knowledge  of  his  character  bears 
out  that  statement,  asserts  that  he  could  not  destroy  Nabis, 
without  destroying  Sparta,  and  that  in  preference  to  destroying 
Sparta,  he  suffered  Nabis  to  go  free. 

But  when  he  left  the  shores  of  Hellas,  after  interceding  twenty 
times,  and  mediating  successfully  between  the  Greeks  and  his 
successors,  the  ^tolians  much  desired  to  make  him  some  great 
*  Plutarch,  vita  Flaminini,  x. 


168  TITUS    QUINCTIUS    FLAMININUS. 

gift,  that  should  prove  their  great  love  and  veneration.  But  the 
known  integrity  of  the  man  deterred  them  ;  for  it  was  notorious 
that  he  would  receive  naught  that  savored  of  a  bribe. 

At  last  they  bethought  them.  There  were  in  Greece  twelve 
hundred  Koman  citizens,  who  had  been  captives  to  Hannibal, 
and  by  him  sold  as  slaves.  Their  sad  case  had  of  late  been  sadly 
aggravated,  as  slaves  themselves  and  bondmen,  they  all  saw  their 
countrymen,  many  their  kinsmen,  some  their  brethren  or  their 
sons,  free,  conquerors,  and  hailed  as  saviors  of  the  land,  to  which 
they  were  enslaved. 

Titus  had  grieved  for  them  deeply ,  but  he  was  too  poor  to 
ransom  them,  too  just  to  take  them  by  the  strong  hand  from 
their  lawful  owners.  So  the  JEtolians  ransomed  them  at  five 
minsb'^  the  head  ;  and,  as  he  was  on  the  point  of  setting  sail, 
brought  them  down  to  the  wharf  in  a  body,  and  presented  them 
to  him,  the  gift  of  hberated  Greece.  "A  gift  worthy,"  says 
Plutarch,  "  of  a  great  man,  and  a  lover  of  his  countr3\" 

A  gift,  say  I,  which  none  would  have  offered  but  to— what  is 
far  greater  than  a  great — a  good  man.  A  gift  which  proves 
ahke  the  character  of  the  givers,  and  the  receiver.  An  honor, 
as  few  gifts  are,  to  both. 

I  care  not  that  in  Flamininus'  triumph  those  twelve  hundred 
ransomed  Romans,  of  their  own  free  will,  walked  with  shaven 
heads  and  white  caps,  as  manumitted  slaves,  and  that  the  people 
of  Rome  had  no  eyes  for  the  hostage  prince,  or  the  barbaric 
gold,  or  the  strange  Macedonian  armor — had  no  eyes  for 
Flamininus  himself,  but  only  for  the  twelve  hundred  manumitted 
Romans. 

But  I  do  care  that  the  -^tolians  knew,  from  their  knowledge 
of  the  man,  that  there  was  one  invaluable  gift  which  it  would 
gladden  the  heart  of  the  incorruptible  of  men  to  receive  at  their 

*  About  twenty  pounds  sterling. 


THE   ROMAN    SLAVES.  169 

hands,  richer  than  untold  gold,  inestimable  jewels,  the  priceless 
liberty  of  freeborn  Romans. 

It  does  not  belong  to  the  military  career  of  Flamininus,  but  it 
does  to  the  history  of  his  life,  that  in  after  days  he  was  sent  by 
the  Senate  ambassador  to  Prusias,  king  of  Bithynia,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  compelling  the  surrender  into  their  hands  of  the  aged, 
exiled,  down-fallen  Hannibal ;  and  that  rather  than  fall  into  those 
pitiless  hands,  which  never  refrained  the  scourge  and  axe  from 
the  noblest  foeman,  the  old  man  had  recourse  to  the 

"  Cannamm  vindex  et  tanti  sanguinis  ultor, 
Annulus."* 

Nor  do  I  choose  to  pass  it  over  in  silence.  Since  it  is  to  be 
remembered  that  the  highest  pride  of  a  Roman  was  to  do  his 
duty  ;  and  his  duty  was  whatever  his  country  ordered.  So  that 
however  odious  the  task  imposed,  and  we  know  too  much  of  this 
man's  character  not  to  be  sure  that  the  embassy  to  Prusias  was 
odious,  a  consular  of  Rome  had  no  choice  but  to  obey  Rome's 
bidding. 

There  was,  moreover,  much  in  the  pertinacity  with  which 
Hannibal  journeyed  from  barbarous  court  to  barbarous  court,  in 
the  hope  of  kindling  a  fire-brand  for  Rome's  conflagration,  even 
after  his  own  country  was  prostrate  beyond  the  chance  of  resur- 
rection, to  palliate  if  not  justify  the  rancor  of  Romans.  The  in- 
extinguishable hater  has  no  right  to  complain  if  the  hatred 
against  himself  be  inextinguishable. 

The  last  office  held  by  Flamininus,  was  the  censorship — the 
highest,  noblest,  purest  dignity  in  the  gift  of  the  state  ;  and  never 
— at  least  in  those  days — bestowed  upon  any  but  the  noble  and 

*  The  Ring,  avenger  of  Cannae  and  of  so  much  blood. 

Juvenal^  Satire  x. 
An  allusion  to  the  poison,  by  which  he  died,  and  which  he  was  said 
to  keep  concea  led  in  a  ring: 
8 


170  TITUS    QUINCTIUS   FLAMININUS. 

the  pure.  It  was  the  Corinthian  capital  to  the  career  of  the 
honored  and  honorable  Roman  magistrate,  and  such  was  Titus 
Quinctius  Flamininus. 

After  this  he  passes  from  our  sight,  and  is  heard  of  no  more 
in  history. 

He  was  a  great  general,  a  great  statesman ;  perhaps  of  the 
greatest. 

But  he  was  something  more  than  a  general,  more  than  a 
statesman — he  was  every  inch  a  man. 


m. 

LUCIUS  ^MILIUS  PAULLUS. 

HIS    SPANISH,    LIGURIAN,    AND    MACEDONIAN    CAMPAIGNS;    HIS 
BATTLE    OF    PYDNA. 

Among  the  ancient  Romans,  during  the  elder  and  brighter 
days  of  Rome,  more  probably  than  in  any  other  state  that  ever 
has  existed,  was  noble  birth  a  requisite  to  office  and  command. 
Save  a  patrician  none  could  hold  a  curule  magistracy  or  com- 
mand an  army ;  and  by  no  accident  of  wealth  or  splendor  of 
virtue,  during  her  early  yeare,  could  one  rise  from  the  plebeian 
to  the  patrician  order. 

The  birth  of  JEmilius  Paullus  was  of  the  very  noblest,  it  was 
said  he  stood  in  direct  descent  from  Mamercus,  the  son  of  Pytha^ 
goras,  from  his  wit  and  winning  ways  *  surnamed  ^milius. 
This  pedigree,  together  with  its  explanation,  are  probably  false, 
as  there  exists  no  real  reason  for  any  connexion  whatever  be- 
tween the  Greek  Philosopher  and  Numa  Pompilius,  whom  he  is 
feigned  to  have  instructed. 

Yet  the  legend  is  by  no  means  without  its  due  weight ;  for  it 
is  clear  if  his  family  had  not  been  known  to  ascend  to  the  highest 
ascertained  antiquity,  men  would  never  have  sought  yet  farther  to 

*  Plut.  Vit.  JEm.  Paulli.  II.  A  punning  surname  not  uncommon 
among  the  ancients.     SI  alfivTiiav  'kbyutv  kCu  x^QI'V  Al/j,v2,iog, 


1*72  LUCIUS    JEMILIUS    PAULLUS. 

find  its  origin  amid  the  clouds  of  fable.  That  this  origin  of  the 
^milian  family  was  credited  by  the  Romans  appeai-s  to  be  con- 
firmed by  the  fact  that  he  was  sent  in  the  year  of  the  city  560, 
B.C.  194,  though  he  had  as  yet  held  no  public  office,  as  one 
of  the  three  commissioners  to  organize  Crotona,  the  birthplace 
of  his  supposed  progenitor,  into  a  Roman  colony. 

His  immediate  connexions  were  of  the  highest.  He  was  the 
son  of  that  ^milius  Paullus  who  chose  to  die  on  the  reeking 
plain  of  Cannae  rather  than  survive  the  shame  of  his  defeat — 
that  PauUus  wtom  the  patrician  annals  of  Rome  loaded  with 
honor  and  made  the  hero  of  the  dreadful  day,  to  the  wrong  of 
his  unfortunate  colleague,  who  dared  to  outlive  the  ruin,  that  he 
might  save  the  relics  of  the  army,  and  did  not,  even  in  that  ex- 
tremity, "  despair  of  the  Republic" — that  Paullus,  whose  name* 
the  Roman  lyrist  has  "  married  to  immortal  vei'se,"  which  has 
transcended  its  own  boasted  term  of  years,  and  yet  lives  in  the 
mouths  of  men,  though  "  the  Pontifex  no  longer  climbs  the  Capi- 
tolian  steps  with  the  mute  vestal  by  his  side,  and  Rome  gives 
law  no  more  to  conquered  Medes  or  Pei-sians" 

His  sister  was  married  to  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio,  the  van- 
quisher of  Hannibal,  and  his  wife,  whom  he  divorced  without 
giving  any  cause  wherefor,  was  the  daughter  of  Caius  Papirius 
Matho.  By  her  he  had  two  sons,  the  eldest  of  whom  was 
adopted  by  the  celebrated  dictator  Quintius  Fabius  Maximus, 
whose  name  he  subsequently  bore,  as  did  his  younger  brother 
that  of  his  uncle  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio,  both  having  the 
suffix  JEmilianus,  to  mark  their  descent  from  the  JEmilii.  The 
latter  of  these  youths  in  after  days  gained  great  celebrity  as  the 
ultimate  conqueror  and  destroyer  of  Carthage,  and  as  he,  like 
his  uncle,  received   the  honorary  surname  of  Africanus,  he  is 

*      ....     Animaeque  magnae, 

Prodigum  Pceno  superante  Paullum. 

Q.  HoRATius  Flaccus. 


HIS    FIRST   CAMPAIGN.  l78 

often  coofounded  by  loose  historical  readers  with  his  far  greater 
uncle,  the  victor  of  the  Peninsula  and  Zama. 

With  such  a  birth,  such  antecedents,  such  connexions,  friends, 
and  name,  it  is  little  to  be  admired  that  he  was  early  called  to 
the  service  of  the  state.  It  was  in  the  second  consulship  of  his 
brother-in-law,  Scipio,  and  the  thirty-fourth  year  of  his  own 
age,  he  was  appointed  commissioner  for  Crotona  ;  and  in  his 
thirty-sixth  year  he  was  elected  adile,  in  preference,  as  it  is  stated 
by  Plutarch,*  to  twelve  men,  all  of  such  worth  and  distinction 
that  they  were  afterward  raised  to  the  consulship. 

In  the  following  year,  the  563d  of  Rome,  b.c.  191,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  protracted  struggle  which  was  still  carried  on  in 
Spain,  a  war  broke  out  with  Antiochus,  and  being  elected 
Praetor,  Paullus  received  Spain  as  his  province,  and  proceeded 
to  the  command  of  the  veteran  army  of  the  propraetor,  Marcus 
Fulvius  Nobilior,  whom  he  succeeded,  with  a  supplementary  force 
of  three  thousand  infantry  and  three  hundred  hoi*se,  one-third  of 
whom  only  were  Roman  citizens,  the  remainder  being  allies  of 
the  Latin  name. 

In  this  his  first  campaign,  the  young  soldier  had,  at  least,  no 
marked  success,  for  I  can  find  no  mention  whatever  of  the  occur- 
rences of  his  command,  Plutarch  passing  over  the  events  of 
the  two  fii*st  years  in  absolute  silence,  and  alluding  to  his 
eventual  victory  as  if  it  had  immediately  followed  his  appoint- 
ment as  proconsul.  Those  books  of  Polybius  which  treat  of  this 
period  are  unhappily  lost,  but  from  the  silence  of  Livy,  who  fol- 
lows him  mainly  in  the  narrative  of  these  events,  it  is  evident 
that  he  had  nothing  to  commemorate  of  brilliant  conduct,  since 
he  was  a  friend  both  of  the  Scipios  and  of  Paullus,  and  whom  he 
loved,  he  loved  to  panegyrize. 

If  he  gained  no  marked  distinction,  however,  it  is  equally 
clear  that  he  incurred  no  disrepute ;  since  he  was  re-appointed 
*  Vit.  iEmil.  Paul.  3. 


1*74  '  LUCIUS  ^MILIUS    PAULLUS. 

to  his  former  province  of  Ulterior  Spain,  which  included  all 
southern  Spain,  as  bounded  by  a  line  drawn  from  New  Carthage, 
Carthagena,  north-westward  to  Salamanca,  and  thence  due  west 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Durius,  or  Douro,  on  the  Atlantic  coast. 
This  command  he  held  with  the  rank  of  proconsul,  but  with  the 
additional  distinction  of  twelve  hctore,  instead  of  the  usual  com- 
plement of  six,  indicating  that  he  held  the  full  consular  imperium. 

His  second  campaign  ^  was  positively  disastrous,  for  having 
moved  from  his  head-quarters,  probably  at  Carthagena,  into 
the  country  of  the  Bastitani,*  corresponding  to  Jaen,  in  Anda- 
lusia, he  was  defeated  by  the  Lusitanians,  who  must  have  crossed 
the  Sierra  Morena  and  Guadalquivir  from  their  own  country,  Por- 
tugal, with  a  loss  of  six  thousand  men  cut  to  pieces  by  the 
revolted  Barbarians,  who  were  with >  difficulty  repulsed  from  an 
attempt  to  storm  his  intrenched  camp.  After  this  repulse,  he 
saved  the  relics  of  his  army  only  by  a  retreat  of  forced  marches 
into  the  pacified  district. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  details  of  this  portion  of  the 
career  of  JEmilius  Paullus,  owing,  T  presume,  to  the  unwilling- 
ness of  Poly  bins  to  treat  of  what  shed  no  lustre  on  his  hero,  are 
bald  and  scanty. 

But  in  spite  of  his  being  beaten  and  forced  to  retreat  with  so 
gi'eat  loss,  it  appears  that  no  blame  attached  to  him,  since  he 
was  still  continued  in  his  command  ;  as  was  rarely  indeed  the 
case  with  a  Koman  officer  who  sustained  a  defeat,  especially 
where  his  want  of  success  was  compensated  by  no  counter- 
balancing array  of  past  services.  None  such  had  Paullus  as  yet 
to  point,  and  he  must  be  held  fortunate  among  his  fellows,  that  he 
was  permitted  an  opportunity  of  retrieving  the  disaster,  and  show- 
ing the  energy  and  genius,  which,  as  yet,  lay  dormant  within  him. 

Perhaps  he  owed  this  to  his  relationship  with  men  who  had 
such  claims  on  the  gratitude  of  the  State  as  Scipio  and  Fabius 
*  Livy,  xxxvii.  46. 


ULTERIOR     SPAIN.  1'75 

Maximus ;  perhaps  he  had  shown  some  traits  of  brilliancy  in  de- 
feat in  bringing  off  his  broken  legions,  which  induced  his  country- 
men to  give  him  yet  another  trial ;  perhaps  circumstances  only 
favored  him. 

The  Romans  were,  at  this  time,  entirely  taken  up  with  the 
war  of  u^tolia  and  Antiochus,  which  exclusively  occupied  the 
public  mind.  They  had  immense  forces  in  the  field,  and  all  the 
regular  officers  of  the  year  were  employed  in  active  service.  At 
the  very  moment  when  the  ill-tidings  arrived  from  Spain,  the 
people  were  celebrating  the  triumph  of  Marcus  Acilius  Glabrio, 
the  consul  of  the  last  and  proconsul  of  the  present  year,  who-had 
terminated  the  war  in  -^tolia,  which  was  now  carried  into  Asia 
by  his  successors,  over  Antiochus,  the  king  of  Syria. 

It  is  possible,  therefore,  that  any  one  of  these  reasons  not  suf- 
ficing, they  were  strong  enough  when  taken  in  combination  to 
secure  to  him  the  continuance  of  a  command  from  which,  in 
less  busy  times,  he  might  have  been  summarily  recalled.  If  it 
were  so,  it  was  fortunate  for  Rome,  no  less  than  for  her  soldiers, 
since  he  was  soon  shown  to  possess  in  an  eminent  degree  the 
military  skill  and  vigor  of  a  great  commander,  and  as  such  he 
served  his  country  well. 

His  province  was  continued  to  him,  but  it  seems  that  he  was 
in  no  degree  reinforced ;  nor  were  the  men  made  up  to  their 
original  complement,  for  it  is  directly  stated  by  Livy,^  that  he 
raised  a  tumultuary  army  of  new  levies,  probably  of  the  Roman 
colonists  of  his  province,  which  would  not  have  been  needed  had 
he  still  had  two  legions,  one  Roman  and  one  of  the  Latin  alHes, 
reinforced  by  a  subsidiary  division  of  the  two  nations,  equal  to 
the  infantry  of  a  half  a  legion,  with  the  full  legionary  complement 
of  horse. 

With  this  new  levied  force,  however,  he  delivered  battle,  and 
smote  the  enemy  with  a  great  slaughter,  killing  no  less  than 
*  Livy,  xxxvii.  57. 


176  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS   PAULLU8. 

fifteen  thousand,  and  making  prisoner  to  the  number  of  three 
thousand  three  hundred  more,  besides  storming  their  entrenched 
camp. 

No  details  of  this  action  are  preserved  ;  but  Plutarch  speaks 
of  two  combats  in  which  thirty  thousand  of  the  enemy  fell,  and 
attributes  all  the  glory  to  Paullus,  saying  that  the  battle  was 
won  almost  entirely  by  his  strategy  ;  and  that  the  passage  of  a 
certain  river  gave  him  the  certainty  of  conquering  the  day.* 

Two  hundred  and  fifty  towns  sued  for  peace  and  submitted 
themselves,  and  the  whole  population  of  the  province  was  again 
recced  to  perfect  tranquillity  and  obedience.  Whereupon,  he 
reported  the  war  at  an  end,  and  throwing  up  his  command  be- 
fore the  arrival  of  any  successor,  returned  to  Rome,  not  richer 
by  one  drachma  than  when  he  left  it. 

On  his  arrival  in  the  city  the  honor  of  a  public  thanksgiving 
to  the  gods  was  voted  him  by  the  Senate,  and  he  was  appointed 
one  of  ten  commissioners  for  the  regulation  of  that  part  of 
Western  Asia  which  had  been  won  from  the  arms  of  Antiochus, 
by  the  two  Scipios,  his  kinsmen. 

From  this  time  forth  we  lose  sight  of  him  for  a  period  of 
seven  years,  during  which  he  does  not  seem  to  have  been  in 
public  l\h  at  all,  while  the  notices  of  his  private  career  ai-e  few, 
jejune,  and  indeterminate. 

He  became  at  an  early  age — but  how  early  it  is  not  laid  down 
— a  member  of  the  College  of  Augurs,  and  attained  to  distinction 
therein,  of  which  fact  we  find  traces  in  his  warfare  against 
Perseus,  in  the  coui-se  of  which  he  showed  himself  not  only  to 
be  a  man  of  piety,  according  to  the  piety  of  those  dai-k  times, 
but  a  man  of  sound  common  sense,  and  in  some  sort,  as  things 
then  went,  a  natural  philosopher  hkewise. 

It  was  during  this  interval  probably,  and  here  Plutarch  places 
it,  that  he  divorced  his  wife  Papiria,  for  causes  known  to  himself, 
*  Plutarch.    Vit :  ^mil.     PauUi.  iv. 


ADOPTION     OF    SONS.  1*^7 

doubtless,  and  to  her  also,  but  held  secret  from  all  the  world  be- 
side, and  exercising  the  minds  of  their  mutual  friends,  it  would 
seem,  with  as  much  curiosity  and  interest  as  if  they  had  been 
inhabitants  of  a  Western  New- York  village  in  the  nineteenth 
century. 

One  day,  it  is  related  to  us  by  the  garrulous  old  Greek  chroni- 
cler, one  of  these  anxious  friends  thought  it  advisable  to  put 
Paullus  through  a  course  of  cross-examinatiott — perhaps  he  was 
a  brother  augur,  a  deacon  of  the  same  church.  "  Is  she  not 
chaste  ?"  he  inquired.  "  Is  she  not  handsome  ?  Is  she  not  the 
mother  of  your  children,  that  you  divorce  her  ?" 

*'  Yes ;  she  is  all  that,"  replied  Lucius  ^milius,  who  appears 
to  have  had  in  his  composition  a  certain  quantity  of  grim  wit,  as 
Perseus  learned  in  after  days  to  his  cost.  "  But  is  not  this  shoe 
of  mine,"  and  he  showed  a  handsome  sandal,  "  well  made  ?  is 
it  not  new  ?  and  yet  there  is  not  one  of  you  can  tell  me  in  what 
part  it  galls  my  foot" 

I  imagine  they  soon  ceased  asking  him  such  questions.  After 
divorcing  Papiria  it  was  that  he  gave  his  sons  by  her  to  the 
adoption  of  Quinctius  Fabius  Maximus,  who  had  been  five  times 
Consul,  and  more  than  once  Dictator,  he  having  lost  his  own 
son,  and  to  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio,  having  himself  married  a 
second  time  and  having  children  by  his  second  wife.  By  Papiria 
he  had  two  daughters  also,  one  of  whom  he  gave  in  marriage  to 
the  son  of  Cato,  and  the  other  to  -^hus  Tubero,  a  man  of  the 
highest  character  and  distinction,  but  so  poor,  although  a  Patri- 
cian, that  his  poverty  caused  remark,  yet  less  remark  than  the 
noble  equanimity  with  which  he  endured  it. 

He  had,  it  is  said,  sixteen  relations,  all  ^lii,  and  thej'  had  but 
one  small  dwelling-house  among  them,  and  one  corn-land,  which 
sufficed  them  all,  living  around  one  domestic  hearth  and  altar 
with  their  wives  and  children,  among  whom  was  numbered  the 
daughter  of  ^milius,  who  during  his  lifetime  was  twice  a  consul 
8* 


1*78  LUCIUS   ^MILIUS  PAULLUS. 

and  twice  triumphed  ;  for  she  was  not  ashamed  at  the  poverty 
of  the  man,  but  greatly  admired  the  virtue  which  kept  him 
poor. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  here,  that  among  the  Romans,  the 
giving  away  of  children  to  fathers  of  adoption,  particularly  when 
they  were  so  worthy  and  noble  as  in  this  instance,  neither  im- 
plied any  doubt  of  their  legitimacy,  nor  conferred  any  disgrace 
as  if  they  were  rejected ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  was  esteemed  an 
honor  to  all  parties.  In  proof  of  this  it  may  be  observed,  that 
in  his  subsequent  grand  campaign  against  Perseus,  all  these  four 
young  men,  having  the  noblest  names  in  the  state,  formed  tho 
military  family  of  ^milius  Paullus,  lived  in  his  tent,  and  served 
him  as  his  lieutenants,  than  which  no  more  need  be  said  at 
present. 

In  the  north-western  angle  of  Italy,  lying  between  the  head 
waters  of  the  Po,  the  Maritime  Alps,  and  the  Tyrrhenian  Sea, 
lay  the  nation,  or  one  might  rather  say  the  tribes,  of  the  Ligurians ; 
for  they  were  still  barbarous,  or  at  the  best  half  civilized ;  robbers 
on  land  and  pirates  by  sea,  they  deemed  it  not  a  reproach  but  an 
honor  to  be  esteemed.  It  was  their  occupation,  their  pastime, 
and  their  pride. 

The  bravest  they  were,  and  the  steadiest  of  all  barbarians  in 
pitched  fight.  Of  a  mixed  race,  between  the  Gauls  and  the 
Spaniards  of  the  coast,  they  carried  on  their  piracies  with  perfect 
daring,  even  to  the  pillai-s  of  Hercules  and  the  Western  Ocean. 

With  these  half  savages  the  Romans  were  at  perpetual  feud, 
for  hke  the  children  of  Ishmael  their  hands  were  against  every 
man,  and  no  flag,  so  that  it  was  a  merchantman's,  was  safe  from 
their  fleet  corvettes.  Yet,  though  they  gave  Rome  much  trouble, 
forcing  her  in  every  few  years  to  send  a  consular  army  into 
their  rude,  cold,  barren,  forest-covered  country — it  is  now  the 
garden  of  Italy,  that  portion  of  the  kingdom  of  Sardinia  border- 
ing on  the  lovely  gulf  of  Genoa  and  embracing  that  queen  of  tho 


LIGURIAN    CAMPAIGN.  l79 

Mediterranean — still  it  did  not  suit  her  utterly  to  destroy  or  sub- 
jugate them,  for  they  acted  as  a  kind  of  outpost  or  fortification 
against  the  Gauls,  who  were  constantly  alarming  if  not  invading 
Italy. 

These  Ligurians  were,  moreover,  to  Rome  what  her  oriental 
empire  is  to  England,  her  Algerine  colonies  to  France,-a  constant 
school  for  the  exercise  of  her  soldiery — the  education  of  her 
generals. 

With  these  hardy  and  resolute  barbarians  the  Romans  had 
been  carrying  on  a  desultory  war  for  several  yeai*s,  the  enemy 
invariably  falling  back,  when  too  hardly  pressed,  into  defiles 
among  thickets  and  precipices,  where  regular  troops  could  not 
readily  follow  them ;  and,  as  soon  as  the  armies  were  withdrawn, 
descending  to  reoccupy  their  villages,  which  the  Romans  were 
reluctant  to  destroy. 

Eight  years  had  now  elapsed,  since  PauUus  JEmilius  defeated 
the  Lusitanians,  and  ten  since  his  first  tenure  of  office  as  ^dile : 
he  had  been  a  candidate  for  the  Consulship  more  than  once,  but 
always  without  success,  until  in  the  year  of  Rome  572,  182  be- 
fore the  Christian  era,  when  he  was  elected  together  with  Cneius 
Bsebius  Tamphilus  ;  and,  as  no  foreign  war  existed  requiring  the 
presence  of  either  Consul,  abroad  or  in  the  provinces,  they  were 
both  assigned  to  the  conduct  of  the  warfare  in  Liguria. 

During  this  year,  nothing  was  eflfected  of  any  moment ;  but 
late  in  the  season  a  rumor  arose  that  the  Transalpine  Gauls  were 
arming,  which,  as  usual,  produced  great  consternation  in  Rome ; 
wherefore  it  was  ordered  that,  while  one  of  the  Consuls  should 
return  to  the  city  in  order  to  hold  the  consular  comitia  for  the 
ensuing  year,  the  other  should  winter  at  Pisa  with  the  legions. 
It  was  arranged  between  the  Consuls,  that  ^mihus  should  re- 
main with  the  array,  since  the  brother  of  Cneius  Bsebius  was  a 
candidate  for  the  consulship ;  and  to  this  he  owed  it,  that  in  the 
ensuing  year  his  authority  was  continued  to  him,  until  the  Con- 


183  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS    PAULLUS. 

suls  should  ])ave  held  their  levies,  and  should  be  in  readiness  to 
proceed  to  their  provinces. 

Early  in  the  season,  anxious,  as  Roman  generals  invariably 
were,  to  effect  something  which  would  give  him  mark  before  the 
arrival  of  his  successors,  ^milius  broke  up  from  his  winter  quar- 
ters, and,  as  soon  as  the  spring  opened,  advanced  into  the  terri- 
tory of  the  Ligurian  Ingauni,  whose  principal  town,  Albium  In- 
gaunorum,  still  exists,  with  the  title  of  Albenga,  on  the  western 
shore  of  the  gulf  of  Genoa,  where  the  Apennines,  at  their  origin 
from  the  Maritime  Alps,  press  down  most  narrowly  upon  the 
sea.  Among  the  lowest  spurs  of  these  it  would  seem  he  fortified 
his  camp,  and  thither  came  ambassadors  from  the  Ligurians,  un- 
der the  pretext  of  seeking  peace,  but  in  reality  acting  as  spies. 
To  these  the  usual  reply  was  given,  that  no  terras  could  be  lis- 
tened to,  no  peace  accorded,  until  they  should  lay  down  their 
arms ;  whereupon  they  asked  and  obtained  a  treaty  of  ten  days, 
in  order,  as  they  said,  to  give  them  time  to  work  the  minds  of 
their  sparse  agricultural  population  toward  peace ;  and  a  condi- 
tion was  added,  that  during  the  armistice  the  Roman  foragera 
should  not  pass  beyond  the  crest  of  the  nearest  hills,  for  fuel  or 
forage,  since  beyond  these  lay  the  cultivated  portion  of  their 
territories. 

By  this  crafty  device,  they  were  enabled  to  bring  together  the 
whole  force  of  their  people,  who  rose  in  mass,  entirely  unobserved 
and  unsuspected  by  the  Romans ;  and  to  concentrate  a  vast 
army  close  under  the  rear  of  these  very  hills. 

Suddenly  in  the  morning,  before  the  armistice  had  yet  ex- 
pired, the  ridges  and  slopes  of  the  hills  were  seen  to  swarm  with 
the  countless  multitudes  of  the  barbarian  host,  pouring  down  the 
declivities,  a  torrent  of  glittering  spears,  with  dissonant  music 
and  fierce  war  cries,  to  attack  the  entrenched  lines  of  the  Romans. 
So  rapidly  impetuous  was  their  descent,  and  so  overwhelming 
their  numbers,  that  the  legionaries  had  neither  time  to  draw  out 


LIGURIAN    CAMPAIGN.  131 

of  their  works,  nor  room  to  form  ;  and,  being  furiously  and  inces- 
santly assaulted  all  day  long,  it  was  with  great  difficulty  that 
they  defended  their  gates,  and  that  rather  by  passive  resistance 
of  bodies  against  bodies,  than  by  any  active  operations. 

At  nightfall,  when  the  enemy  drew  off,  ^milius  sent  two 
hoi-semen  to  Pisa,  with  letters  to  Cneius  Baebius,  his  late  col- 
league, now  proconsul,  informing  him  how  treacherously  he  was 
beset,  and  praying  him  to  march  to  his  aid,  as  speedily  as  possi- 
ble, with  reinforcements. 

It  fell  out,  however,  that  Bsebius  had  delivered  over  his  army 
to  Marcus  Pinarius,  the  Praetor,  who  had  sailed  for  Sardinia ;  and 
Marcus  Claudius  Marcellus,  to  whom  Bsebius  wrote  immediately, 
commanding  in  Cisalpine  Gaul,  next  adjoining  the  Ligurian 
country,  had  not  a  man  disposable  for  his  relief,  being  himself 
engaged  with  the  Istri,  a  barbarous  people  at  the  head  of  the 
gulf  of  Venice,  who  were  in  arms  to  prevent  the  settlement  of 
the  colony  of  Aquileia. 

Great  consternation  was  excited  at  Rome,  on  the  arrival  of 
the  tidings  from  Baibius,  that  Paullus  was  so  strictly  blockaded, 
and  that  there  existed  no  means  of  relieving  him,  from  the 
vicinity.  There  appeared  but  one  hope  of  succoring  him,  and 
that  so  tardy  as  to  be  at  best  uncertain — that  the  Consuls 
should  depart  at  once  to  the  province,  with  such  sudden  forces 
as  they  could  muster.  This  they  were  unwilling  to  do,  claiming 
the  right  to  hold  the  regular  levies,  before  departing.  The 
Senate,  however,  commanded  that  they  should  at  once  pass  the 
gates  'paludati,  clad  in  their  war-cloaks,  a  solemn  ceremony, 
after  which  they  were  not  permitted  to  re-enter  the  city ;  appoint 
a  day  when  the  soldiers  already  raised  should  rendezvous  at 
Pisa ;  levy  all  comers ;  and  march  forthwith.  The  Prsetoi-s 
were  instructed  to  levy  two  tumultuary  legions  of  Roman  citizens, 
and  to  administer  the  military  oath  to  all  men  under  fifty  years 
of  age ;  the  contingents  of  the  allied  cities  of  the  Latin  name 


182  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS    PAULLUS. 

were  ordered  out  to  the  number  of  fifteen  thousand  foot,  and 
eight  hundred  horse ;  and  lastly,  the  naval  decemvirs  were  ap- 
pointed, Caius  Matienus  and  Caius  Lucretius,  to  whom  squadrons 
were  assigned ;  and  the  former  was  sent  to  the  coast  of  Liguria, 
under  orders  to  co-operate  to  the  utmost  with  JEmilius  and  his 
army. 

Never,  since  the  dreadful  day  of  Cannae,  had  Kome  been  so 
vehemently  agitated.  It  was  fully  expected  that  the  next  tidings 
would  be,  that  the  Roman  army  was  entirely  cut  oflf;  a  disgrace 
not  endurable,  as  inflicted  by  the  hands  of  undisciplined  barba- 
rians, at  the  very  threshold  of  Italy,  and  within  little  more  than 
three  hundred  miles  of  Rome  itself. 

In  the  mean  time,  JEmilius  sat  within  his  beleaguered  works, 
with  difficultly  beating  off",  day  after  day,  the  onslaughts  of  the 
barbarians,  who  waxed  bolder  and  more  insolent  from  their  im- 
punity, and  looking  anxiously  toward  the  east  for  the  expected 
succors. 

But  none  came,  nor  any  reply  from  Baebius.  So  that,  at 
length  concluding  that  his  messengers  must  have  been  cut  off*  by 
the  enemy,  and  despairing  of  any  relief  from  without,  -^milius 
resolved  to  execute  an  operation  of  that  excessive  daring,  which 
has  often  been  shewn,  in  desperate  positions,  to  be  the  truest 
prudence — to  make  a  sortie  en  masse  upon  the  enemy,  and  to 
trust  the  event  to  the  valor  and  discipline  of  his  tried  soldiery, 
and  to  the  superiority  of  their  armature  and  equipment. 

A  Roman  camp  was  regularly  of  an  oblong  square  form,  with 
four  gates,  one  in  the  centre  of  each  side ;  the  praetorian,  or 
questorian,  as  it  was  termed  when  an  officer  inferior  to  a  consul 
was  in  command,  in  front ;  the  right  principal,  and  left  princi- 
pal, in  the  corresponding  sides ;  and  the  decuman,  or  extraordi- 
nary gate,  in  the  rear. 

The  title  extraordinary  was  attached  to  this  gate,  because  the 
defence  of  it  was  entrusted  to  the  "  extraordinaries,"  or  select 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    BATTLE.  183 

bodies  of  picked  Roman  horse  and  allied  infantry,  who  acted  as 
the  general's  body-guard,  and  were  stationed  immediately  in  the 
rear  of  his  quarters,  between  them  and  the  ramparts. 

From  all  these  four  gates  JSmihus  had  determined  to  sally 
simultaneously,  and  to  that  end  he  arranged  his  dispositions 
thus : 

To  the  four  regular  cohorts  of  "  extraordinaries"  he  added  two 
others,  and  placed  the  whole  under  the  command  of  Marcus 
Valerius,  his  lieutenant,  with  orders  to  break  cut  at  the  decuman 
gate,  at  the  sounding  of  the  trumpets.  At  the  right  principal 
gate  he  drew  up  the  first  legion,  with  its  hastati  in  advance  and 
its  principes  in  reserve,  under  the  command  of  Marcus  Servilius 
and  Lucius  Sulpicius,  tribunes  of  the  soldiei*s. 

At  the  left  principal,  he  stationed  Sextus  Julius  Csesar  and 
Lucius  Aurehus  Cotta,  tribunes  of  the  soldiers,  with  the  principes 
of  the  third  legion  in  advance  and  the  hastati  in  reserve. 
Quintus  Fulvius  Flaccus,  likewise  his  lieutenant,  he  put  in  com- 
mand of  the  right  wing  of  the  Latin  allies  at  the  quaestorian 
gate  ;  leaving  two  cohorts  of  allies,  and  all  the  triarii  of  the  two 
Roman  legions,  to  garrison  the  camp. 

This  done,  he  rode  round  to  all  the  gates  and  harangued  the 
soldiers,  inflaming  their  spirits,  and  casting  it  against  them  as  a 
reproach,  that  it  was  shameful  for  Romans  to  be  pent  up  in  their 
defences  by  a  rabble  of  Ligurian  savages.  At  all  points  he  was 
answered  by  cheers  and  tumultuous  shouting,  showing  him  that 
the  hearts  of  the  men  were  high ;  and  they  replied  to  him,  that 
it  was  no  fault  of  the  soldiers  if  they  were  shut  up  within  their 
gates,  for  no  one  had  ordered  them  to  sally.  Let  him  order  the 
trumpets  sound,  and  he  would  soon  see  what  difference  there  is 
between  Romans  and  Ligurians. 

The  Ligurians  had  two  camps  on  this  side  the  mountains, 
from  which,  in  the  early  days  of  the  blockade,  they  used  to  issue 
fully  armed  and  in  orderly  ranks  at  daybreak ;  but  after  awhile. 


184  LUCIUS    uEMILIUS   PAULLUS. 

seeing  that  the  Romans  never  came  out  against  them,  blinded 
with  rash  insolence,  they  laid  aside  all  caution,  wandering  about 
dispersed,  and  keeping  no  sort  of  order,  nor  ever  taking  up  arms 
till  they  had  gorged  and  drenched  themselves  with  food  and 
wine. 

While  the  barbarians  were  thus  straggling  to  and  fro,  antici- 
pating nothing  less  than  an  attack,  the  Roman  trumpets  sounded 
the  point  of  war  ;  simultaneously  the  gates  flew  open,  and  with 
a  mighty  shout,  in  which  all  the  garrison  left  within  the  ramparts, 
as  well  as  all  the  grooms  and  camp  followers,  united,  outpoured 
the  skirmishers,  supported  by  the  solid  Hnes  of  the  legionary 
foot,  the  cavalry  in  the  rear  of  these  leading  their  horses  by  the 
bridles. 

So  sudden  and  complete  was  the  surprise,  that  the  Ligurians 
scarcely  offered  as  how  of  resistance ;  a  straggling  and  irregular 
skirmish  of  scarcely  a  few  minutes'  duration  followed  ;  and  then, 
those  who  had  held  together  for  a  while,  broke  and  fled  in  all 
directions,  panic-stricken  towards  their  camps.  But  the  Roman 
horse,  mounting  on  the  instant,  wheeled  round  by  their  own 
flanks  and  made  a  hideous  carnage  among  the  fugitives,  having 
execution  on  them  across  the  whole  width  of  the  plain  to  the 
base  of  the  spurs,  on  which  their  camps  were  placed,  and  giving 
no  quarter  to  any,  in  revenge  for  the  treacherous  breach  of  the 
armistice. 

It  was  not  long  before  all,  who  were  not  left  incapable  of 
flight  upon  the  fatal  field,  were  shut  up  in  their  camps,  which  they 
made  a  show  of  defending.  But  JEmilius,  unsatisfied  with  his 
success,  was  resolved  to  end  the  war,  on  the  same  day  which  be- 
gan it  actively,  with  a  crushing  cowp  de  main  ;  and  not  even  halt- 
ing his  maniples,  or  giving  time  that  their  ardor  should  cool,  and 
the  reaction  consequent  on  fierce  excitement  begin  among 
them,  led  them  at  once  to  the  storm  of  the  inartificial  defences, 
and  carried  both  camps  at  a  blow,  with  prodigious  slaughter. 


SURRENDER    OF   THE    LIGURIANS.  185 

*Above  fifteen  thousand  Ligurians  were  slain  outright,  in  that 
day's  fighting ;  two  thousand  and  five  hundred  only  were  made 
prisoners — a  number  of  enemies  pfut  hors  de  combat  greater,  it  is 
probable,  than  the  whole  Roman  force  engaged  that  day — since 
a  regular  consular  army,  of  two  Roman  and  two  Latin  legions, 
did  not,  unless  extraordinarily  augmented,  exceed  20,000  men 
of  all  arms  ;  and  it  is  not  likely  that  JEmilius  would  leave  less 
than  two  or  three  thousand  for  the  protection  of  his  camp. 

So  much  more  sanguinary  in  comparison  were  the  battles  of 
old  times,  when  men  fought  hand  to  hand,  with  cut  and  thrust, 
their  personal  animosities  kindled,  and  all  the  wolfish,  gladiatorial 
rage  aroused  within  them,  than  those  of  modern  days,  in  despite 
the  invention  of  gunpowder,  rockets  and  shells,  and  all  the  nomi- 
nally murderous  improvements  of  recent  science  in  the  art 
of  war. 

The  numerical  force  of  the  whole  Ligurian  host  is  nowhere 
stated ;  but,  from  the  numbei*s  of  the  slain,  it  must  have  been 
prodigious,  since  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  above  a  third  of 
their  whole  number  was  slain,  or  that  a  power  short  of  seventy 
to  a  hundred  thousand  undisciplined  barbarians,  should  have 
sufficed  to  shut  up  a  Roman  consular  army,  for  many  successive 
days,  within  its  defences. 

The  blow  was  decisive,  and  the  punishment  as  eflfectual  as  it 
was  well  deserved.  On  the  third  day  after  the  action,  the  whole 
tribe  of  Ligurian  Ingauni  surrendered  at  discretion,  and  gave 
hostages  for  their  good  behavior.  All  the  masters  and  crews  of 
their  piratical  fleet  were  arrested  and  cast  into  prison  ;  and  the 
fleet  itself,  consisting  of  two-and-thirty  galleys,  was  captured  on 
the  coast,  by  Caius  Matienus,  the  decemvir. 

Tidings  were  sent  to  Rome,  by  Lucius  Aurelius  Cotta,  and 
Caius  Sulpicius  Gallus,  announcing  that  the  war  was  at  end,  and 

Livy,  40.  28» 


186  LUCIUS   iEMILIUS   PAULLUS. 

praying  permission  for  ^milius  to  return  with  his  army  from 
the  provinces,  as  there  was  no  more  work  to  do. 

Proportionate  to  the  consternation,  which  had  preceded  it, 
was  the  joy  of  the  people  on  learning  that,  instead  of  losing  a 
consular  army,  with  disgrace  and  ignominy,  they  had  gained  an 
unparalleled  victory,  and  conquered  a  nation  in  a  day ;  and  their 
gratitude  to  the  victor  was  measured  rather  by  the  greatness  of 
their  previous  fears  and  the  imminence  of  his  danger,  than  by 
any  extraordinary  display  of  strategetical  science  or  tactical  skill 
in  the  action  itself. 

The  merit  of  the  exploit  lay  in  the  prompt  and  daring  deci- 
sion to  deliver  battle,  in  the  vigor  and  rapidity  of  the  execution, 
and  in  the  stern  energy  with  which  the  first  success  was  fol- 
lowed up. 

The  requests  of  ^milius  were  both  granted ;  the  praetoi-s  were 
instructed  to  disband  the  city  legions,  and  to  remit  the  levies  of 
the  Latin  name ;  and  orders  were  sent  to  the  consuls  to  discharge 
at  once  the  tumultuary  soldiers  and  volunteers,  who  had  been 
raised  on  the  receipt  of  the  first  ill  tidings. 

A  thanksgiving  of  three  days'  duration,  to  the  shrines  of  all 
the  gods,  was  at  once  voted  ;  and,  on  his  return  from  his  pro- 
vince, the  victorious  general  was  honored  with  a  triumph,  in 
which  he  displayed  five-and-twenty  golden  crowns,  and  many 
chiefs  of  the  Ligurians,  captives  at  his  chariot  wheels.  The  spoils 
taken  from  the  pirates  were  of  small  consideration  ;  but  the  sol- 
diers received  three  hundred  pounds  weight  of  brass  coin  as  their 
prize  money  ;  and  the  glory  of  -^milius  was  increased  by  the 
arrival  of  Ligurian  ambassadors,  craving  perpetual  peace,  and 
promising  that  their  people  would  never  take  up  arms  save  as 
allies,  and  at  the  bidding  of  the  Roman  people. 

Thus  creditably  terminated  the  first  consulship  and  second 
command  of  this  brave  man  and  good  soldier ;  of  whom  for 
several  years  history  loses  sight  entirely,  at  the  end  of  which 


LIGURIAN    CAMPAIGN.  187 

period  he  is  only  casually  named,  as  appointed  their  patron*  by 
the  delegates  from  farther  Spain,  to  represent  their  interests  and 
defend  them  from  the  extortions  and  oppression  of  their  governors. 
The  fact,  however,  of  this  selection  proves  the  influence  which 
he  exercised  over  public  opinion  in  Rome  ;  and  would  lead  to  a 
favorable  estimate  of  his  integrity  and  public  virtue,  since  the 
people  who  now  voluntarily  elected  him  their  protector,  were  the 
same  over  whom  he  gained  his  first  victory,  and  whom  he  re- 
duced to  the  condition  of  a  conquered  province. 

It  is  stated  by  Plutarch ,f  that  he  offered  himself  after  this 
several  times  as  a  candidate  for  the  consulship  without  success  ; 
and  that,  considering  himself  neglected  by  his  countrymen,  he 
withdrew  entirely  from  the  scenes  of  pubhc  life,  and  devoted 
himself  to  the  study  of  augury,  and  to  the  education  of  his  chil- 
dren, not  only  after  the  fashion  of  his  country  and  his  ancestors, 
but  also  in  the  letters,  arts,  and  exercises  of  Greece ;  himself  pre- 
siding at  their  trials  of  discipline,  over  the  Greek  instructors 
whom  he  retained  about  them. 

And  these  were  not  grammarians,  sophists,  and  rhetoricians 
only,  but  sculptors  and  painters,  horsebreakers,  huntsmen, 
and  teachers  in  the  mysteries  of  the  chase.  So  that  ^niiUus 
gained  the  honorable  distinction  of  being  the  best  father,  and  the 
fondest  of  hisxhildren,  among  all  the  Romans. 

But  he  was  not  destined  to  pass  the  remainder  of  his  days  in 
inactivity,  as  regards  the  state,  however  virtuously  spent  or  well 
employed  might  be  his  time  at  home.  For,  whether  she 
might  neglect  him  or  no  in  her  days  of  prosperity  and  success, 
when  danger  came  and  disgrace  seemed  imminent,  Rome  could 
not  afford  to  forget  the  good  soldier,  whom  she  had  never  found 
wanting ;  and  who  had  once,  out  of  the  near  menace  of  dishonor, 
brought  her  to  glorious  triumph. 

*  Livy,  43.  2. 

t  Plutarch.    Vit  iEmil.  Paul.  vi. 


188  LUCIUS    JEMILIUS  PAULLUS. 

In  the  notice,  above,  of  the  splendid  career  of  Titus  Quinctius 
Flamininus,  it  has  been  shewn  how  after  the  close  of  the  Second 
Punic  War,  there  arose  the  First  Macedonian  War,  against 
Philip,  out  of  that  monarch's  friendship  and  encouragement  ren 
dered  to  the  Carthaginians. 

That  war  was  concluded  by  Flamininus,  in  two  able  campaigns, 
by  the  battle  of  Cynoscephalse,  and  the  proclamation  of  liberty 
and  self-government  to  all  the  states  of  Greece,  at  the  Isthmian 
games ;  and  Philip,  having  made  submission,  remained  at  peace 
with  the  Romans,  until  his  death  in  the  year  1Y9  before  the 
Christian  era,  and  fifteen  after  his  defeat  by  the  Roman  general. 

The  latter  years  of  his  life  were  marked  by  consummate  wis- 
dom and  prudence  in  the  conduct  of  political  affairs,  and  in  the 
management  and  development  of  the  resources  and  powers  of 
his  empire  ;  and  by  faciUty  and  rashness,  equally  conspicuous,  in 
his  domestic  conduct. 

He  had  taken  part  honorably  and  sincerely  with  the  Romans 
in  their  Asiatic  war  against  Antiochus,  but  the  ingratitude  of  the 
Great  Republic  alienated  him  from  them ;  and  it  is  probable, 
that  his  death  alone,  ascribed  to  remorse  and  repentance  for  the 
taking  off  of  his  rightful  heir  Demetrius,  at  the  instigation  of  his 
eider  base-born  Perseus,  prevented  a  Second  Macedonian  War 
under  his  guidance  against  the  arms  of  Rome.     ^ 

How  such  a  war  would  have  terminated  it  is  now  worse  than 
vain  to  speculate ;  but  when  we  consider  that  when  the  war  did 
commence,  three  Roman  consuls  in  three  several  campaigns  were 
completely  foiled,  their  armies  several  times  defeated,  and  them- 
selves saved  from  total  destruction  only  through  want  of  energy 
and  courage  in  their  enemy,  by  the  avaricious  and  imbecile 
Pei-seus,  we  cannot  doubt,  that  under  his  active,  intelligent,  and 
gallant  conduct,  Rome  would  have  met  grave  reverse  and  in- 
curred serious  loss  of  repute  before  her  arms  had  been  crowned 
with  success. 


SUCCESSION     OF    PERSEUS.  189 

At  his  death  he  left  his  country  vastly  strengthened  in  arms, 
men  and  resources.  He  had  abandoned  all  his  weak  wayside 
or  sea-shore  towns,  and  concentrated  his  powei-s  inland,  in  gar- 
risoned cities  strong  by  natural  and  artificial  defences^  well  armed 
and  victualled,  and  full  of  disciplined  and  athletic  men  in  the  prime 
of  hfe.  He  left  thirty  thousand  stands  of  complete  armor  and 
arms  in  his  arsenals,  eight  hundred  medimni  of  wheat — which 
would  seem  to  have  been  in  those  days  esteemed  a  considerable 
provision — though  now  it  would  be  ludicrously  small,  when  armies 
are  fed  from  magazines  in  their  rear — and  treasure  suflScient  to 
maintain  ten  thousand  mercenaries  in  the  field,  during  a  ten 
years'  war  in  advance  of  his  own  frontiei's. 

With  his  kingdom,  his  treasures,  his  phalanx,  mercenaries 
and  allies,  he  bequeathed  to  Perseus  his  enmity  toward  Rome, 
and  the  war  which  he  was  meditating  at  the  period  of  his 
death  ;  but  he  bequeathed  to  him  no  one  of  those  high  quali- 
ties, which  he  himself  so  eminently  possessed,  and  which  some- 
times, though  rarely,  we  see  descending  through  long  lines  of 
illustrious  races,  as  if  by  hereditary  right. 

By  common  consent  of  all  historians,  Pei-seus  was  treacherous, 
avaricious,  cowardly,  and,  although  free  from  the  vices  of  his 
father,  addiction  to  wine  and  women,  was  yet  more  seriously 
unfitted  for  success  in  military  projects,  which  require  un- 
bounded liberality,  though  regulated  by  sound  judgment, 
through  his  ignoble  love  of  money,  as  an  end,  not  as  a  means, 
which  ultimately  proved  his  ruin. 

Which  of  the  two  contending  parties  were  to  blame  in  the 
commencement  of  the  war,  it  is  not  now  easy  to  determine, 
nor  is  it  a  matter  of  much  importance.  Rome  and  Macedonia 
were  now  antagonists,  as  inevitably  as  Rome  and  Carthage  had 
been  such  during  the  preceding  conflicts.  There  was  no  safety 
for  the  Greek  States,  nominally  allies,  but  in  truth  provinces  of 


190  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS    PAULLUS. 

Rome,  so  long  as  there  remained  a  strong,  ambitions,  powerful, 
warlike  and  wealthy  Greek  State  on  her  northern  frontier. 

Perhaps  it  is  true,  as  Alison  has  set  forth  in  one  of  his  philo- 
sophic theories,  that  for  a  democratic  government,  or  one 
largely  partaking  of  the  democratic  spirit,  progress  is  a  neces- 
sity— that  for  a  nation,  once  entered  on  the  career  of  conquest, 
there  can  be  no  safety  to  the  vanquished  frontiers,  but  in  ad- 
vancing them  by  fresh  victories. 

However  this  may  be,  it  is  evident,  that  if  Pei-seus  had  en- 
croached and  committed  treacherous  aggressions  on  the  aUies  of 
Rome,  which  it  is  probable  he  had  done,  although  he  denied  it, 
Rome  had  resolved,  aggression  or  no  aggression,  to  swallow  up 
the  Macedonian  Empire,  and  coveted  the  opportunity  of  war, 
which  in  his  state  of  headstrong  dementation  Perseus  was  not 
slow  to  afford  her. 

In  the  year  of  Rome  583,  B.C.  IT  1,  the  Second  Macedonian 
war  was  declared  by  the  Romans,  and  in  the  spring  of  that  year 
the  Consul  Pubhus  Licinius  Crassus  was  sent  to  Greece,  with 
Macedonia  as  his  province,  carrying  with  him  the  first  and  third 
Roman  legions,  augmented  each  to  6,000  infantry,  with  the 
usual  complements  of  300  hoi*se,  and  two  Latin  legions,  besides 
which  he  had  exti-aordinary  levies  of  two  thousand  Ligurians 
some  Cretan  archery,  and  a  considerable  body  of  Numidian 
horse  with  elephants,  which  were  supphed  by  a  requisition  on 
Massinissa  and  the  Carthaginians. 

A  considerable  space  of  time  was  wasted  at  the  commence- 
ment of  this  campaign  in  conferences,  between  the  Roman  com- 
missioners, sent  to  maintain  pacific  relations  with  the  states  of  the 
Peloponnese,  Attica,  Boeotia,  Acarnania,  Illyria,  and  Epirus,  and 
the  King  in  person.  These  led  to  the  sending  of  a  Macedonian 
embassy  to  Rome,  where  the  commissioners  openly  boasted 
that  their  only  object  was  to  gain  time,  and  that  they  had, 
in  fact,  cheated  Perseus,  having,  in  spite  of  the  armistice,  already 


FIRST   CAMPAIGN.  191 

taken  the  initiative,  and  filled  many  of  the  doubtful  towns^ 
which,  otherwise,  Pei-seus  would  have  seized,  with  Roman 
garrisons. 

It  is  remarkable,  that  the  elder  and  nobler  senators,  to 
whom,  says  Livy,  this  new  philosophy  was  not  agreeable,  re- 
claimed against  this  breach  of  national  honor  and  justice,  and 
denied  that  any  gain  of  territory,  empire,  or  glory,  could  justify 
or  atone  for  national  disgrace  ;  just  as  the  best  and  grandest 
minds  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  have  protested  against 
the  buccaneering  schemes  of  aggressive  and  dishonest  conquest, 
which  it  is  the  fashion  to  palliate  by  a  jargon  of  progress,  and 
of  the  manifest  destiny  of  the  race. 

The  elder  and  nobler  senators,  however,  were  out-voted  at 
Rome  ;  the  eyes  of  the  multitude  were  dazzled  by  the  glare  of 
false  glory  ;  and  the  success  of  the  ends  was  permitted  to  justify 
the  baseness  of  the  means. 

The  Consul  landed  at  Dyrrachium,  now  Durazzo,  on  the  Gulf 
of  Venice,  where  he  encamped  at  a  place  called  Nymphea,  in 
the  Epirotis.  About  this  time,  Perseus  broke  up  the  encamp- 
ment of  his  army  about  Pella,  the  capital  and  royal  residence, 
marched  easterly  to  the  Lacus  Begorritis,  now  lake  Kitrini,  in 
Perrhaebia,  and  thence  southerly  to  the  Tripolis,  as  it  is  called, 
of  Azorus,  Pythium,  and  Doliche,  crossing  the  defiles  of  the 
Cambunian  mountains  into  the  great  plain  of  upper  Thessaly. 
From  the  tripolis  he  moved  southerly  to  Mylae,  on  the  Titare- 
sius,  which  he  took  by  storm,  and  made  himself  master  of  the 
towns  of  Gyrton,  Phalanna,  below  the  junction  of  the  Titaresius 
and  Peneius,  or  Salamvria,  Elateia  and  Gonnus,  two  strong 
places,  commanding  the  important  military  pass  of  Terape, 
which  he  fortified  with  a  triple  ditch  and  palisade,  and  then 
took  post  at  Sycurium,  now  Marmariani,  a  town  "  situated  at  the 
foot  *  of  Mount  Ossa,  on  its  northern  side,  looking  upon  the 
*  Leakeys  Travels  in  Northern  Greece,  3.  374. 


192  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS   PAULLUS. 

Thessalian  plains  in  that  direction,  and  backed  by  Macedonia 
and  Magnesia,  abounding  in  fountains  of  perennial  water,  and 
commodiously  placed  for  collecting  corn  from  the  neighboring 
territories  of  Crannon  and  Pherae." 

The  consul  meantime  had  marched  unopposed  through  the 
Epirotis,  and  entering  Athamania  had  good  cause  to  rejoice  that 
he  had  met  no  armed  opposition ;  for  the  mountain  passes  were 
nearly  impracticable,  and  in  one  especially,  at  Gomphi,  in  upper 
Thessaly,  which  is  supposed  to  coincide  with  the  defile  and  sin- 
gular pillared  rocks  of  Meteora — a  hundred  men  might  hare 
arrested  his  whole  force.  Thence  he  advanced,  after  a  halt 
of  a  few  days,  wherewith  to  recruit  his  army,  to  the  village  of 
Tripolis  Scsea,  on  the  right  bank  of.  the  Peneius,  about  three 
miles  distant  from  the  city  of  Larissa,  and  fifteen  from  Sycu- 
rium.  At  this  place  he  was  joined  by  Eumenes  and  Attains, 
kings  of  Pergamus,  with  considerable  forces  of  infantry  and  a 
few  Thessahan  horse ;  and  here  occurred  a  slight  and  indecisive 
cavalry  skirmish,  in  which  fell  Cassignatus,  the  leader  of  the 
Gauls  of  Perseus'  army.  On  the  following  day  Pereeus  ad- 
vanced from  Sy curium,  bringing  with  him  in  his  wagons  water 
for  the  troops,  the  country  being  arid  over  which  he  marched, 
and  as  the  Romans  declined  battle,  he  entrenched  a  camp  at 
five  miles'  distance  from  the  enemy. 

On  the  next  morning,  he  advanced  as  if  to  attack  the  camp, 
and,  on  the  consul  sending  out  his  cavalry  and  light  troops, 
defeated  him  in  a  sharp  encounter,  with  the  loss  of  two  thousand 
infantry  and  two  hundred  Roman  hoi*se,  besides  six  hundred 
prisoners  of  the  cavalry.  This  partial  success  he  might  have 
improved  into  a  decisive  victor}^,  had  he  followed  the  advice  of 
his  officei-s,  and  led  out  the  phalanx ;  but  he  was  timid,  and 
lost  the  opportunity  which  offered  not  again ;  Crassus  retreating 
across  the  river  in  the  night,  thus  betraying  the  alarm  which  he 


ULTERIOR     SPAIN.  193 

felt,  and  which  would  probably  have  given  the  victory  to  a  more 
enterprising  enemy,  and  the  King  removing  to  Mopsium. 

After  this  Crassus  fell  back  to  a  strong  position,  near  Atrax^ 
where  he  received  reinforcements  of  1000  Numidian  horse,  at 
many  foot  of  the  same  nation,  and  two-and-twenty  elephants. 

After  these  events  Perseus  offered  peace,  which  the  Romans, 
with  characteristic  obstinacy,  never  treating  except  when  victori- 
ous, haughtily  declined. 

Later  in  the  season,  the  intermediate  portion  of  the  campaign 
having  been  consumed  by  the  Romans  in  the  siege  of  Haliartus, 
Thebes,  and  other  towns  of  Boeotia,  which  had  revolted  on  the 
news  of  the  victory  of  Pei*seus,  the  consul,  who  had  consumed 
all  the  corn  in  the  plains  about  Crannon,  moved  down  again 
into  the  Phalannsea,  where,  after  a  fruitless  attempt  to  burn 
his  camp,  Perseus  surprised  and  made  prisoners  of  about  six 
hundred  foragers,  with  a  thousand  loaded  wagons.  These  he 
sent  to  the  rear,  while  he  pressed  the  attack  in  person  on  eight 
hundred  Romans,  under  Lucius  Pompeius,  who  had  taken  post 
on  an  abrupt  eminence,  and  were  making  a  desperate  resistance. 

The  King  sent  orders  to  the  phalanx  to  advance  from  Mop- 
sium, and  tidings  were  brought  to  the  consul  of  the  state  of 
affaii-s  in  the  field. 

But,  the  Roman  succors  coming  up  the  earlier,  Perseus  was 
compelled  to  draw  off  his  men  and  retreat ;  and  the  phalanx, 
having  come  up  tardily  and  in  disorder,  met  the  wagons  and 
prisoners  in  a  precipitous  defile,  with  the  river  flowing  beneath 
the  rocks,  near  Elateia,  now  the  pass  of  Vernesi,  by  which  bridge 
Perseus  had  crossed  the  river.  There,  becoming  entangled  with 
these,  the  Macedonians  were  compelled  to  kill  the  prisoners, 
and  to  throw  the  wagons  over  the  rocks  ;  and,  immediately  after- 
wards, being  hampered  by  the  influx  of  the  King's  retreating 
cavalry  and  light  troops,  found  much  difficulty  in  extricating 
themselves  from  the  gorge  which  they  had  inconsiderately 
9 


194  LUCIUS     ^MILIUS    PAULLUS. 

entered,  nor  would  have  succeeded  in  doing  so,  had  Licinius 
Crassus  possessed  the  eye  and  intelligence  of  a  general  or  the 
spirit  of  a  soldier. 

It  was  an  ill-fought  campaign,  discreditable  to  both  parties, 
for  although  the  Romans  wei-e  woi*sted  in  the  main,  and  lost 
repute  as  the  greater  losers,  either  party  exposed  itself  to  total 
defeat,  and  owed  its  security  to  no  conduct  or  courage  of  its 
own,  but  to  the  imbecility  and  over-caution  of  the  adverse 
leader. 

This  indecisive  affair  finished  the  fii'st  campaign  of  the  Persic 
war,  for  the  King  leaving  a  strong  garrison  in  Gonni  for  the 
defence  of  the  pass  of  Tempe,  retired  into  Macedonia  proper, 
and  the  consul  went  into  winter  quarters  at  Larissa,  dispereing 
his  command  among  the  towns  of  the  ThessaUotis  for  the  con- 
venience of  subsisting  them. 

In  the  following  year  Aulus  Hostihus  Mancinus,  the  successor 
of  Crassus,  had  no  better  fortune  than  his  predecessor ;  for  he 
was  nearly  surprised  by  Perseus,  and  made  prisoner,  during  his 
passage  through  Epirus  to  join  his  army  in  the  Thessaliotis ; 
and  afterwards  was  beaten  by  that  King,  and  found  himself 
ultimately  unable  to  make  his  way  into  Macedonia,  either  by 
force  through  Elimea,  or  secretly  through  Thessaly. 

Unable  to  cope  with  their  enemy  in  the  field,  the  Roman 
leaders  betook  themselves  to  cruel  persecution,  and  the  most 
savage  plunderings  of  their  aUies,  and  such  Greek  cities  as  were 
so  unhappy  as  to  fall  into  their  hands. 

The  golden  days  of  Rome  were  now  at  an  end,  valor  and  con- 
duct were  no  longer  the  stepping  stones  to  rank  and  power ; 
but  wealth,  however  gotten,  lent  a  golden  key  to  its  possessor 
whereby  to  unlock  the  gates  of  office,  and  lust,  avarice,  corrup- 
tion, cruelty,  instead  of  continence,  frugahty,  integrity,  and 
courage,  became,  except  in  two  rare  instances,  the  characteristics 


THE    MACEDONIAN    PASSES.  195 

of  the  Roman  magistrate — name,  whilom,  so  majestical  and 
mighty. 

In  the  year  585  of  Rome,  169  of  Rome,  and  the  third  of  the 
Persic  war,  Marcius  Philippus  was  elected  consul  for  the  second 
time,  a  brave,  energetic,  active  man,  but  above  sixty  years  of 
age,  and  of  a  corpulent  and  bulky  habit,  which  seriously  inter- 
fered with  his  services  in  the  field. 

Landing  at  Ambracia  early  in  the  spring  the  consul  moved 
at  once  into  Thessaly,  where  he  was  met  by  Hostilius  with  the 
army,  which  he  gave  up  to  him  in  the  vicinity  of  Palaepharsalia, 
when  he  resolved  immediately  on  marching,  without  delay, 
into  Macedonia,  though  it  was  not  easy  to  determine  by  which 
road  he  should  advance ;  some  recommending  the  route  by 
Pythiura,  others  that  across  the  Cambunian  mountains,  and  yet 
others  that  by  the  lake  of  Ascuris,  now  Ezero,  over  the  towering 
forest  ridges  of  Olympus. 

Having  reached  the  Perrhaebian  tripolitis,  he  fortified  an  en- 
trenched camp  between  Azorus  and  Doliche,  and  there  learned 
that  Perseus  had  detached  Asclepiodotus,  with  ten  thousand 
light  troops,  to  guard  the  pass  of  Volustana,  now  Servia,  in  the 
Cambunian  mountains,  which  commanded  the  passage  of  the 
Haliacmon,  now  the  Injekhara,  or  Vistritza;  that  he  had 
sent  Hippias,  with  twelve  thousand  Macedonians,  to  keep  the 
castle  of  Lapathus,  above  lake  Ascuris,  on  the  crest  of  Olympus  ; 
and  lay  himself  at  Dium,  a  fine  and  well  fortified  city  to  the 
north-eastward,  situate  at  the  eastern  foot  of  Olympus,  between 
that  mountain  and  the  sea,  and  occupying  the  whole  breadth  of 
the  defile,  whi  h  is  but  a  mile  in  width,  the  half  of  which  space 
is  covered  by  the  impassable  morasses  at  the  mouth  of  the  river 
Baphyrus,  while  all  the  remainder,  with  the  exception  of  a 
small  level,  which  might  have  been  easily  closed  by  a  ditch  and 
palisade,  is  blocked  up  by  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  and  town  of 
Dium. 


196  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS    P^ULLUS. 

The  Gorges  of  Tempe,  with  the  strong  fortresses  of  Gonnus 
and  Condylum  were  occupied  in  force  by  the  soldiers  of  the 
king,  and  all  ingress  into  Macedonia  appeared  absolutely  barred 
against  the  Romans. 

Marcius,  however,  resolved  to  force  the  passes  of  Olympus,  by  ^ 
Octolophus,  and  sent  forward  his  son  Claudius  in  advance,  with 
4,000  men,  following  him  in  person  with  the  whole  army.  So 
steep  and  perilous  was  the  way,  so  abrupt  the  declivities  of  the 
broken  ravines,  and  so  difficult  the  pathless  pine  forests  of  Calli- 
peuce,  through  which  they  had  to  force  their  passage,  that  in 
two  days  they  made  but  fifteen  miles ;  and  in  the  middle  of  ^ 
the  third  day,  at  the  end  of  seven  miles,  found  themselves  in 
the  presence  of  llippias  and  the  Macedonians. 

Marcius  being  informed  by  express  of  the  enemy's  where- 
about, advanced  at  speed  and  occupied  a  height  above  the  lake 
of  Ascuris,  commanding  a  view  of  the  whole  of  the  sea-coast 
from  Herachia  to  Phila,  which  height  has  been  identified  with 
that  of  Rhapsani,  above  lake  Ezero,  by  that  able  and  indefatiga- 
ble investigator.  Col.  Leake,  whose  personal  observations  on  the 
geography  of  Ancient  Greece,  have  done  more  to  elucidate  the 
history  of  the  Greek  wars  than  those  of  any  other  commentator. 

"  After  a  day's  repose,"  says  this  agreeable  writer,  abridging 
from  Livy,  who  himself  copied  the  narrative  of  Polybius,  an 
eye-witness  accompanying  the  consul  in  his  march,  in  his 
quality  as  an  Achaean  envoy,  "  the  consul  led  his  forces  against 
Hippias,  and  both  on  that  day  and  the  following  there  was  a 
continued  combat,  but  of  the  light  troops  only,  the  nature  of  the 
ground  not  admitting  of  any  more  serious  conflict.  The  fame 
and  power  of  Rome  were,  at  this  moment,  in  the  utmost  peril ; 
but  the  consul,  fully  sensible  of  his  hazardous  situation,  judged 
that  it  would  be  more  dangerous  to  retreat  than  to  advance,  and 
Perseus,  fortunately,  having  made  no  attempt  to  support  or 
relieve  the  fatigued  troops  of  Hippias,  the  consul  left  Popillius 


PASSAGE    OF    OLYMPUS.  197 

with  a  sujficient  force  to  observe  them,  and  began  a  descent  to 
the  maritirae  plain,  in  which,  at  the  end  of  four  days  of  extreme 
labor,  he  pitched  his  tent  between  Libethrium  and  Heracleia," 
nearly  midway  from  the  defiles  of  the  Peaeius,  or  Salamvria,  at 
Tempe,  ^nd  the  strong  pass  at  Dium. 

So  formidable  were  the  labors  and  perils  of  the  descent,  that 
the  elephants  were  only  got  over  it  by  means  of  platforms  re- 
sembling bridges,  upon  which  they  were  induced  to-^dvance, 
when  the  supports  were  gradually  cut  away  in  succession,  and  the 
monstrous  beasts  were  compelled  to  slide  on  their  rumps  down 
the  frightful  dechvities ;  many  of  the  infantry  rolled  in  their 
heavy  panoply  down  the  slopes,  where  it  was  too  steep  to  walk 
securely;  and  the  cavalry,  painfully  leading  their  horses  by 
the  bridles,  were  yet  in  worse  plight  than  the  footmen. 

Livy  admits  that,  had  the  Macedonians  been  led  by  one  of 
their  ancient  hero  kings,  the  consul  must  have  been  inevitably 
destroyed ;  but  Perseus,  when  he  knew  that  the  Romans  were 
checked  and  brought  to  a  stand  in  the  mountains,  when  he 
could  even  hear  the  battle-cries  and  the  clang  of  arms  from  the 
pine-clad  mountain  ridges,  and  mark  the  wavering  of  the  battle 
by  the  increasing  or  diminished  clangor,  sent  no  succors  to  his 
gallant  heutenant,  much  less  rushed  himself  into  the  conflict,  in 
which  he  surely  must  have  prevailed  ;  but  kept  ranging  up  and 
down  the  coast,  from  Dium  to  Heracleia,  in  utter  indecision,  if 
not  in  base  personal  terror,  until  he  learned  suddenly,  while  in 
the  act  of  taking  a  bath,  that  the  consul  had  descended  from  the 
mountains,  and  was  encamped  on  the  sea-shore. 

"  Even  here,"  continues  Colonel  Leake,  "  had  he  not  been 
opposed  to  an  enemy  who  was  under  the  influence  of  that  de- 
mentation,  which  is  the  surest  prognostic  of  falling  power,  his 
position  was  still  httle  less  than  desperate,  as  he  was  surrounded 
on  every  side  by  strong  passes  in  the  hand  of  superior  forces, 


198  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS    PAULLUS. 

and  without  the  means  of  obtaining  sufficient  supplies  for  his 
army  by  sea." 

But  Perseus  crying  out  that  he  was  conquered  without  a 
battle,  plundered  the  town  of  Dium  of  its  golden  statues,  that 
they  should  not  fall  into  the  hands  of  tha  Romans,  sent  two  of 
his  friends,  one  to  Pella  and  the  other  to  Parthus,  with  orders 
to  throw  all  the  royal  treasures  into  the  sea — both  these  men 
he  caused  afterwards  to  be  murdered,  so  great  was  his  morti- 
fication at  his  own  disgraceful  terror — and  recalling  all  his  gar- 
risons from  Volustana  and  Tempe,  he  fled,  by  forced  marches,  to 
Pydna,  and  thence  into  the  interior  of  Macedonia. 

The  remainder  of  the  campaign  was  passed  by  the  Romans 
in  opening  up  their  communications  by  the  various  defiles,  in 
reducing  the  garrisoned  towns  of  Perseus,  and  pacifying  the 
whole  of  Perrhaebia  and  the  Thessaliotis,  but  no  foothold  was 
gained  in  Macedonia  proper,  nor  did  the  war  seem  any  nearer 
to  a  successful  termination,  than  on  the  day  when  it  was  de- 
clared. 

So  ended  the  third  year  of  the  Persic,  or  second  Macedonian 
war.  For  the  next  year  Lucius  JEmilius  Paullus  and  Caius 
Licinius  Crassus  were  elected  consuls,  the  former  for  the  second 
time,  in  the  fourteenth  year  after  his  first  tenure  of  that  office ; 
and  to  him,  with  great  confidence  in  his  abilities  and  high  hopes 
of  a  prosperous  result,  the  Roman  people  committed  the  conduct 
of  the  Macedonian  war. 

It  is  stated  by  Plutarch,*  that,  when  the  inclinations  of  the 
people  began  evidently  to  concentrate  upon  himself,  as  upon 
the  one  man  suited  to  carry  this  war,  which  had  so  long 
languished,  to  a  creditable  termination,  ^mihus  evinced  consider- 
able reluctance  to  become  a  candidate ;  and  that,  when  he  did 
so,  after  much  solicitation,  he  stated  publicly  that,  on  his  first 
election  he  had  sought  office  at  the  hands  of  his  people  for  his 
*  Plut.  Vit.  Mm.  Paulli.  x. 


ELECTION    OF    PAULLUS.  1S9 

own  pleasure,  but  that  on  this  second  occasion  he  had  been 
sought   of  them    to  be  their  general  at  a  time  of  need,  and 
therefore,  owed  them  no  gratitude,  but,  on  the  contrary,  was 
owed  by  them  obedience,  yeoman  service,  and  all  that  an  intel- 
hgent  and  unquestioning  spirit  of  discipline  could  render. 

In  this  life  of  JEmilius  PauUus,  old  Plutarch  appears  to  better 
eflfect  than  usual ;  his  gossip  is,  for  once,  much  to  the  point, 
and  appears  characteristic  of  the  man,  and,  what  is  more,  he 
seems  to  have  studied  his  authorities  carefully,  and  at  times  dif- 
fered from  them,  instead  of  setting  down  every  loose  assertion  as 
a  matter  of  fact.  The  fact  of  his  differing  is  valuable,  as  show- 
ing a  desire  to  elicit  the  truth  from  conflicting  statements,  if 
otherwise  valueless,  as  it  is  in  my  opinion,  where  he  differ  from 
Polybius,  himself  a  veteran  soldier,  and  a  spectator  of  a  portion 
at  least  of  the  events  which  he  narrated  as  an  eye-witness, 
though  unhappily  his  narrative  is  lost  to  us,  unless  in  so  far  as 
it  is  preserved  by  Livy,  who  has  here  followed  closely  in  his 
footsteps. 

Supposing  now  that  the  old  chronicler  has,  as  is  wont,  leaned 
a  little  to  the  marvellous,  and  to  the  magnification  of  his  hero, 
we  cannot  yet  fail  to  perceive  that  there  was  something  unusual 
in  the  manner  of  PauUus'  nomination  at  this  juncture,  from  the 
account  of  Livy,*  who  disagrees  with  Plutarch  as  to  the  direct 
appointment  of  that  officer  to  the  Macedonian  war,  stating  that 
he  obtained  it,  as  usual,  by  allotment.  Since  it  is  clear  that  he 
demanded,  as  a  preliminary,  even  to  his  making  a  report  on  the 
condition  of  the  war,  that  commissioners  should  be  sent  into 
Macedonia,  who  should  strictly  scrutinize  the  state  of  the  Roman 
armv,  as  to  discipline,  present  force,  temper,  and  the  position 
which  it  now  occupied,  who  should  report  on  the  disposition  of 
the  allies,  and  of  the  various  Greek  States,  and  on  the  prepara- 
tions, available  resources,  and  real  strength  of  Perseus. 
*  Livy,  Lib.  xliv.  18,  et  seq. 


200  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS    PAULLUS. 

"We  find  no  demand  of  this  nature  previously  made  on  the 
Senate  by  any  Roman  commander,  and  its  being  made  in  thrs 
instance,  and  immediately  conceded,  goes  far  to  prove  these 
facts,  first,  that  war  had  now  come  to  be  considered  as  a  regular 
science,  and  to  be  managed  in  all  its  operations  scientifically, 
not  at  hap-hazard,  according  to  the  chances  of  the  occasion,  the 
temper  of  the  moment,  and  the  mei^  courage  of  the  leaders  and 
the  men.  Secondly,  that  this  war,  although  in  no  wise  affecting 
the  integrity  or  safety,  much  less  the  existence  of  Rome  in  a 
national  point  of  view,  was  regarded  as  a  matter  of  the  first  im- 
portance, and  to  be  dealt  with  now,  after  the  delays  and  disap- 
pointments of  three  successive  campaigns,  successive  generals, 
powerfully,  scientifically,  and  conclusively.  Thirdly,  that  the  man 
now  selected  for  its  conduct  was  fully  acceptable  to  the  people, 
and  implicitly  trusted  by  them,  inasmuch  as  powers  and  facili- 
ties were  unhesitatingly  accorded  to  him,  which  had,  probably, 
never  been  asked  for  at  any  previous  date. 

Wben  these  commissioners  returned,  they  made  their  report 
to  the  Senate  to  the  following  efiect,*  that  the  Roman  army 
had  advanced  in  Macedonia  with  far  greater  loss  than  advantage ; 
that  Perseus  held  all  Pieria,  which  he  had  occupied  in  force  ; 
that  the  two  armies  lay  face  to  face,  the  river  Euipeus  only 
intervening ;  that  the  King  was  indisposed  to  deliver  battle,  and 
that  the  consul  had  not  the  means  to  compel  him.  That  the 
Macedonians  had  thirty  thousand  men  under  arms,  while  Appius 
Claudius  had  not  a  sufficient  number  to  maintain,  effectively, 
even  a  defensive  war,  and  was,  moreover,  in  want  of  corn  for  his 
men.  That  many  of  the  allies  of  the  fleet  had  been  lost  by 
various  diseases,  and  that  many  more,  those  from  Sicily  in  par- 
ticular, had  deserted  and  gone  home,  as  having  received  neither 
pay  nor  clothing.  To  this  they  added,  that  no  faith  could  be 
reposed  on  Eumenes,  whose  fleet  went  and  came  as  wind  and 
♦  Livy,  xliv.  cap.  21, 


ARMY    OF    PAULLUS.  201 

tide  bore  it,  without  reason  or  pretext.  They  reported,  however, 
that  the  good  faith  of  Attalus  was  eminently  proved,  and  this,  it 
would  appear,  was  the  only  word  of  satisfactory  import  that 
they  brought  back  from  the  seat  of  war. 

Meanwhile  Perseus  was  said  to  be  gathering  immense  subsidi- 
ary forces  of  Gauls  and  Illyrians — as  he  might  in  very  deed  have 
done,  had  not  his  base  avarice  and  absurd  self-confidence, 
amounting  to  actual  dementation,  led  him  to  break  his  pledges, 
and  alienate  these  most  necessary  friends — and  his  fleets  were 
riding  the  Levantine  seas  in  triumph,  bringing  in  rich  convoys 
of  grain  for  his  army,  comforting  his  own  friends,  making  new 
maritime  alliances,  and  striking  terror  to  the  hearts  of  those  who 
favored  Rome,  in  all  directions.  So  soon  as  the  commissioners 
had  delivered  their  report,  ^milius  laid  the  question  of  the 
conduct  of  the  war  before  the  Senate,  and  it  was  then  seen  of 
what  importance  to  the  State  this  protracted  conflict  was  regard- 
ed, and  how  fully  were  appreciated  the  talents  and  energy  of  the 
new  general ;  for  preparations  were  made  to  place  him  at  the 
head  of  armies  far  more  considerable  than  had  been  sent 
abroad  since  the  fall  of  Hannibal,  and  to  carry  out  all  the  details 
of  the  project  on  the  finest  scale. 

In  the  first  place,  they  ordered  a  levy  to  be  made  of  seven 
thousand  Roman  foot  and  two  hundred  horse,  with  the  same 
force  of  infantry  and  double  the  number  of  cavalry  of  the  Latin 
allies — these  as  a  reinforcement  to  the  two  Roman  legions 
already  forming  the  consular  army  of  Macedonia,  which  were  to 
be  augmented  to  the  extraordinary  rate  of  six  thousand  infantry 
and  three  hundred  horse  in  each — and  yet,  in  addition  to  these, 
a  levy  was  ordered  in  his  behalf  of  six  hundred  Gallic  cavalry. 
It  is  impossible,  therefore,  that  the  actual  force,  in  command  of 
which  Lucius  .^Emilius  Paullus  took  the  field  in  pei*son,  could 
have  fallen  short  of  twenty-seven  thousand  eight  hundred  men, 
9* 


202  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS   PAULLUS. 

of  whom  nineteen  thousand  eight  hundred  were  Eoman  citizens, 
and  eighteen  hundred  horse. 

If,  however,  it  is  to  be  understood — and  I  do  not  perceive 
how  it  can  be  understood  otherwise,  for  such  was  the  invariable 
practice  of  consular  armies — that  the  two  Roman  legions  already 
in  Macedonia  were  accompanied — as  we  know  to  have  been  the 
case  in  the  instance  of  Licinius  Crassus,  in  the  first  campaign  of 
this  very  war — by  two  Latin  legions  of  equal  inf^mtry  force,  with 
their  cavalry  contingents  doubled,  the  whole  number  of  swords 
and  pila  in  the  army  of  ^milius  PauUus,  would  amount  to 
forty-one  thousand  men,  of  whom  three  thousand  were  horse. 

And  this  I  conclude,  by  all  analogy,  to  have  been  his  com- 
mand, which  was  rendered  yet  more  available  by  the  permission 
accorded  to  him,  of  choosing  from  the  whole  number  of  tribunes 
of  the  soldiers,  then  in  the  state — a  rank  corresponding  as 
nearly  as  possible  to  that  of  our  lieutenant-colonels — such  men 
as  he  should  himself  prefer  to  command  the  legionai-ies. 

An  advantage  which  will  not  be  held  trivial  by  any  men  who 
are  experienced  in  military  affairs,  and  who  know  how  much  the 
morale  of  an  army  is  affected  by  the  quality  of  its  oflScers,  and 
how  surely  even  inferior  troops,  if  well  led,  will  prevail  over 
better  men  if  officered  by  persons  in  whom  they  have  not  con- 
fidence. 

Besides  this  consular  army  under  his  own  guidance,  a  power- 
ful diversion  was  to  be  made  in  his  favor  by  Lucius  Anicius,  a 
second  extraordinary  praetor,  who  was  detailed  to  support  him, 
in  addition  to  Octavius,  who  commanded  the  fleet,  with  two 
full  legions,  and  a  supplementary  body  of  ten  thousand  infantry 
and  eight  hundred  cavalry  of  the  allies,  besides  five  thousand 
more  allies  from  the  naval  colonies  to  man  his  squadron.  I'ho 
whole  of  th^s  expedition,  which  was  to  move  against  Gentius 
and  the  Illyrians  along  the  eastern  shores  of  the  Adriatic,  and 
on  the  western  frontier  of  Macedonia,  so  as  to  prevent  auxilia- 


ENTIRE    PERSIAN    FORCE.  "*  203 

lies  joining  Perseus  from  that  quarter,  amounted  to  twenty- two 
thousand  regular  infantry  and  cavahy,  and  five  thousand  ma- 
rines. The  fleet  of  the  Praetor  Octavius  was  manned  by  at 
least  ten  thousand  men  of  the  naval  colonies  ;  and  the  whole 
power  set  in  motion  against  Macedonia  this  year,  under  the 
consul  and  the  two  praetors,  did  certainly  not  fall  short  of 
seventy-eight  thousand  men  of  all  arms,  without  taking  into 
account  the  irregulars,  and  local  or  foreign  auxiharies,  who  were 
attached  to  them. 

Of  these,  we  know  that  in  the  preceding  campaigns,  there 
were  Numidian  horse  and  foot  to  the  number  of  about  five 
thousand,  with  twenty-two  elephants,  not  to  mention  Cretan  and 
Thessalian  light  troops,  and  although  these  auxiharies  are  not 
especially  mentioned  as  present  in  the  campaign  of  the  Enipeus 
and  the  battle  of  Pydna,  it  is  little  likely  that  they  were  with- 
drawn when  they  were  most  needed. 

In  short,  it  seems  that  in  every  possible  respect,  whether  we 
look  to  the  numbei-s,  the  physique,  and  the  equipment  of  the 
soldiery,  or  the  morale  of  the  officers,  Rome  had  rarely,  if  ever, 
sent  out  an  armament  superior  to  this,  which,  it  appears,  Senate 
and  people  had  both  predetermined  should  finish  the  war  and 
the  campaign  together,  and  with  the  two  the  kingdom  of  Per- 
seus, and  the  dynasty  of  Philip  and  Alexander. 

On  the  last  day  of  March  the  consuls  celebrated  the  solemn 
Latin  festival  in  the  Capitol,  with  an  unusual  attendance  of 
citizens  and  provincials,  *'  all  men  presaging,"  says  Livy,*  "  with 
almost  certain  hope,  that  there  would  be  a  summary  conclusion 
of  the  Macedonian  war,  and  a  speedy  return  of  the  consul  in 
magnificent  triumph." 

On  his  return  to  his  own  house,  from  the  Capitol,  after  this 
splendid  show,  Plutarch  tells  us — and  the  anecdote  is  not  with- 
out itfi  interest,  as  characteristic  both  of  the  time  and  of  the 
*  Livy,  xliv.  cap.  22. 


204  '  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS    PAULLUS. 

man,  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  famous,  as  an  augur — 
^milius  met  his  little  daughter,  Tertia,  in  the  vestibule, 
crying  bitterly. 

Taking  up  the  child  and  kissing  her,  he  inquired  what  ailed 
her,  that  she  wept,  when  she  replied,  among  her  tears,  "  Do  you 
not  know  then,  father,  that  our  little  Perseus  is  dead  ?''  Pei-seus 
was  a  little  pet  dog  of  the  children.  Whereunto  the  consul, 
"  With  good  fortune  have  you  spoken,  and  I  accept  the  omen." 

When  we  come  to  his  exorcisms  of  the  moon  laboring  in 
eclipse,  an  eclipse  which  he  had  himself  foreseen,  and  of  which, 
by  his  permission,  Sulpicius  Gallus  had  preraonished  the  sol- 
diery, we  shall  have  occasion  to  look  farther  into  the  supei-sti- 
tion,  or  political  sagacity,  which  led  a  man,  superior  both  in 
knowledge  and  strength  of  mind  to  his  cotemporaries,  to  conde- 
scend to  mummeries  so  childish  to  our  modern  eyes. 

It  was  at  this  period,  in  the  teeth  of  forces  such  as  I  have 
enumerated,  and  on  the  point  of  being  confronted  by  a  generalj 
in  that  day,  of  unrivalled  activity,  that  Pei*seus,  by  an  incon- 
ceivable fatuity,  and  with  an  avarice  so  miserable  as  to  excite 
pity,  if  its  absurdity  did  not  awaken  ridicule  and  scorn,  thought 
proper  to  dismiss  auxiliaries,  which  might  well,  as  Livy  admits, 
have  changed  the  whole  fortune  of  the  war,  and  would,  beyond 
a  doubt,  have  indefinitely  protracted  it,  whom  he  thus  con- 
verted into  overt  enemies — "  and  that  too  being  not  a  Lydian," 
as  Plutarch  ironically  observes,  "nor  descended  from  Phoeni- 
cians, but  one  aflecting  to  aim  at  the  valor  and  virtue  of  Philip 
and  Alexander  by  right  of  descent,  who  had  overcome  all  ob- 
stacles, by  holding  that  great  events  were  to  be  acquired  by 
money,  not  money  by  events." 

For  shortly  before  the  embarcation  of  ^milius,  the  Bastarnse, 
a  Gallic  or  Celtic  tribe  of  Sarmatia,  corresponding  to  Hungary 
and  Poland,  had  sent  him  mercenary  troops,  to  the  number  of 
ten  thousand  horse,  and  an  equal  number  of  foot  soldiers,  trained 


THE    BASTARN^.  205 

to  fight  either  as  infantry  or  cavahy,  mingling  and  keeping  pace 
with  the  squadrons,  and  mounting  the  horses  of  those  who  fell 
in  action. 

These  men  had  no  use  of  agriculture,  or  commerce,  nor  even 
of  pastoral  life,  studying  and  practising  one  art  alone,  that  of 
arms  and  war,  by  which  they  had  their  Uving,  They  were  tall 
and  strong  of  person,  admirable  for  their  skill  in  exercise, 
daring  and  superb  in  their  contempt  for  wounds  or  death.  In 
them  the  Macedonians  placed  the  highest  hopes,  believing  that 
the  Romans  would  not  brook  their  onset.  They  had  stipulated 
to  receive  ten  aurei*  for  every  horseman,  five  for  every  footman, 
a  thousand  for  their  leader,  and  had  advanced  to  Desudaba, 
a  town  in  Moedica,  corresponding  to  part  of  the  modern 
province  of  Rumelia,  on  the  northern  portion  of  Poeonia,  in 
Thrace. 

Desudaba  is  shown  by  Col.  Leake  to  have  stood  on  the  site 
of  the  modern  Rumanovo,  22.5-42°,  and  to  effect  his  junction 
with  these  bold  and  hardy  auxiliaries,  Perseus  marched  half  his 
army  from  the  Enipeus,  where  he  was  guarding  the  passes  of 
Olympus  into  Macedonia  proper,  to  Almana,  on  the  Upper 
Axius,  or  Vardhari,  whence  he  sent  Antigonus  to  the  Barbarian 
camp  to  invite  theBastarnse  to  advance  to  Bylazora,  now  Veleza, 
a  town  situate  in  the  passes  from  the  Dardanice,  into  Macedonia, 
and  to  depute  their  chiefs  to  meet  him  at  Almana,  where  he 
promised  them  supplies  for  their  route,  and  costly  presents  for 
their  chiefs.  The  Bastarnoe,  would  not,  however,  stir  without 
receiving  their  pay,  which  Perseus,  in  his  insane  avarice,  shrank 
from  bestowing  ;  and,  after  some  miserable  chaffering,  in  the 
course  of  which  the  King  affected  to  require  but  five  thousand 
instead  of  twenty  thousand  auxiliaries,  finding  that  he  was  no 
more  inclined   to  pay  that  smaller  body  than  the  whole  force, 

*  Plutarch.  Vit.  Mm,  Paul.  12.  The  aureus— Xpvorooc  was  £0  16  6, 
or  $3  51. 


206  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS    PAULLUS. 

they  withdrew  in  vehement  indignation  to  the  Danube,  devas- 
tating all  the  country  through  which  they  passed. 

The  sum  demanded  was  a  large  one,  doubtless,  amounting  to 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million  sterhng,  but  Livy,*  following  Poly- 
bius,  a  cotemporary  and  most  competent  judge  of  such  matters, 
asserts  roundly  that  by  his  dismissal  of  these  men,  he  sealed  the 
fate  of  the  war,  and  of  his  empire,  and  his  life.  For  "  had  this 
power,"  he  says,  *'  been  led  into  Thessaly  against  the  Romans, 
through  the  passes  of  Perrhsebia,  while  the  king  sat  still  on  the 
Euipeus,  it  could  not  only  have  devastated  all  the  rich  Thessa- 
Han  plain,  from  which  the  enemy  subsisted  their  forces,  but 
could  have  even  stormed  the  towns  which  the  Romans  could 
not  have  succored,  being  forced  to  make  head  against  Perseus 
on  the  river.  So  that,  in  fact,  the  cause  of  Rome  would  have 
been  ruined  for  that  campaign  at  least,  since  they  could  neither 
have  held  their  ground  after  the  loss  of  Thessaly,  which  alone, 
supported  them,  nor  could  have  forced  the  passes  into  Macedo- 
nia, the  Bastarnae  being  in  force  on  their  left  flank  and  in  their 
rear." 

With  similar  idiocy — for  it  seems,  in  fact,  nothing  less — and 
even  with  greater  treachery  and  baseness,  he  deceived  Gentius, 
the  king  of  the  Illyrians,  lost  the  advantages  of  his  alliance,  and 
ultimately  abandoned  him  to  the  mercy  of  the  Romans. 

He  had,  it  seems,  promised  Gentius  three  hundred  talents,f 
though  he  actually  paid  him  but  ten,  and  having  succeeded  in 
inducing  him  to  commit  himself  against  the  Romans,  by  the 
seizure  of  their  delegates,  he  fancied  him  sufl&ciently  involved, 
refused  to  make  good  his  promise,  and  shortly  afterward,  when 
the  Prsetor  Amicius  took  the  field  against  him,  suffered  his 
country  to  bo  overrun,  his  capital  stormed,  and  himself,  with  all 

*  Livy,  xliv.  27. 

t  The  talent  of  Agza  was  £404  14s.  2d.,  or  $1759  22. 


SAILS    FROM  ITALY.  207 

his  family,  made  a  pi'^oner,  without  striking  a  blow,  or  ev^n 
moving  a  man  to  e  Fit  a  diversion  in  his  behalf. 

Such  fatuity  is  inc3nceivable,  for  a  single  glance  at  the  map 
of  Macedonia,  immediately  to  the  northward  of  the  modern 
kingdom  of  Greece,  shows  conclusively  that  had  Gentius,  with 
his  Ulyrians,  risen  along  the  eastern  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Venice, 
barring  all  Illyria,  Orestis,  and  the  Epirotis,  as  they  might 
easily  have  done,  while  the  warlike  Bastarnae,  pouring  down 
through  the  passes  of  Pseonia,  and  the  rugged  defiles  of  the 
Cambuuian  mountains,  occupied  all  the  internc^ediate  country, 
and  the  rich  plains  of  Thessaly,  Perrhabia,  and  the  Histiaeotis, 
the  Romans  would  have  been  shut  up  and  surrounded  between 
the  difficult  defiles  of  the  Enipeus  and  Tempe,  the  ridges  of 
Olympus  and  the  Thermaic  gulf,  with  the  whole  of  Northern 
Greece  in  arms  against  them  in  their  flank,  and  in  their  rear,  ren- 
dering their  retreat  to  Italy,  or  their  rehef  by  the  advance  of 
reinforcen^ents  utterly  impossible. 

But  for  the  ftituity  or  dementation  of  the  last  of  the  Macedo- 
nian kings,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive,  how  all  tlie  talents,  energy 
and  vigor  of  jEmilius,  all  the  discipline  and  gallantry  of  his 
subordinates  and  soldiers  could  have  saved  him  from  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  catastrophe  of  the  Caudine  forks,  or  his  army  from 
unconditional  surrender  or  total  destruction. 

It  appeal's  from  the  narrative  of  Livy,*  and  from  the  recorded 
oration  of  the  consul  at  his  triumph,f  that  he  left  Rome  on  the 
first  of  April,  immediately  after  the  celebration  of  the  Latin 
Games,  sailed  from  Brundusium,  in  Calabria,  at  sunrise,  crossed 
the  Sti'aifcs  of  Otranto,  and  occupied  Corcyra,  now  Corfu,  with 
his  whole  fleet  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day. 
Thence  he  proceeded,  making  a  circuit,  the  reasons  for  which 
are  wholly  inexplicable,  five  days  journey,  in  a  direction  remov- 
ing him  at  every  mile  from  the  seat  of  the  war,  to  Delphi,  where 
*  Livy  xliv.  22,  t  ^h.  xlv.  41. 


2  38  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS   PAULLU3. 

he  pei-formed  sacrifices  of  lustration  for  himself,  his  army,  and 
his  fleet,  and  hence  again  five  days  journey  to  the  camp  of  the 
consul,  Philippus,  whom  he  succeeded,  on  the  southern  bank  of 
the  river  Euipeus,  between  the  heights  of  Olympus  on  his  left 
and  the  sea 

His  course  lay  through  the  sublime  and  romantic  defiles  of 
the  Peneius,  celebrated  through  all  time  as  the  vale  of  Tempe — 
though  the  word  vale  is  most  inapplicable  to  the  scenery  of  the 
pass,  since  it  is  an  abrupt  gorge,  barely  affording  space  for  the 
noble  river  and  the  narrow  track  between  sublime  precipitous 
limestone  crags,  which  is  thus  vividly  described  by  the  graphic 
pen  of  the  illustrious  traveller*  whom  I  have  so  often  quoted. 

"  In  this  space  the  opening  between  Ossa  and  Olympus  is,  in 
some  points,  less  than  one  hundred  yards,  comprehending,  in 
fact,  no  more  than  the  breadth  of  a  road  in  addition  to  that  of 
the  river,  which  is  here  much  compressed  within  its  oi'dinary 
breadth  in  the  plains,  and  not  more  than  fifty  yards  across.  On 
the  northern  bank  there  are  places,  in  which  it  seems  impossible 
that  a  road  could  ever  have  existed,  so  that  the  communication 
was  probably  maintained  anciently,  as  it  is  now,  by  two  bridges, 
or  by  ferries.  It  is  evident,  at  least,  from  the  marks  of  wheels, 
and  the  Latin  inscription,  that  the  via  militaris,  or  main  route, 
was  in  the  present  track. 

In  some  parts  of  the  pass  there  is  sufficient  space  for  little 
grassy  levels,  and  even  in  the  narrowest  j^laces  the  river's  bank 
is  overshadowed  by  large  plane  trees,  throwing  out  their  roots 
into  the  stream.  In  the  meadows,  when  the  ground  admits  it, 
are  copses  of  evergreens,  in  which  Apollo's  own  daphne  is  mixed 
with  the  wild  olive,  the  arbutus,  the  agnus  castus,  the  paliurus, 
and  the  lentisk,  festooned  in  many  places  with  wild  grapes  and 
other  climbei-s.  The  limestone  chfFs  rise  with  equal  abruptness 
on  either  side,  but  their  white  and  bare  sides  are  beautifully 
*  Leake's  Travels  in  Northern  Greece,  iii.  393. 


THE    DEFILES    OF    TEMPE.  209 

relieved  by  patches  of  dwarf  oak,  velanidhies,  and  a  variety  of 
the  common  shrubs  of  Greece,  while  occasional  openings  afford 
a  glimpse  of  some  of  the  nearer  heights  of  the  two  mountains 
clothed  with  large  oaks  and  firs ;  in  other  places,  where  both 
sides  of  the  ravine  are  equally  precipitous,  a  small  portion  of  the 
zenith  only  is  visible." 

It  was  through  this  beautiful  but  difficult  mountain  pass, 
which  had  been  opened  at  the  close  of  the  last  campaign  by 
Spurius  Lucretius,  lieutenant  of  the  Consul  Marcius,  that  Paullus 
now  marched  up  his  reinforcements  to  join  the  army,  which  lay 
in  its  entrenchments  facing  the  enemy,  and  separated  from  him 
only  by  the  deep  and  precipitous  bed  of  the  river  Enipeus,  now 
known  as  the  Litokhoro,  having  a  Turkish  village  of  the  same 
name  on  its  right  bank,  not  far,  probably,  from  the  site  of  the 
Roman  camp. 

This  torrent,  for  such  it  is  more  properly  termed  than  a  river, 
containing  little  water  in  summer,  but  full  of  quicksands  and 
whirlpools  in  the  time  of  wintry  rains,  "  has  its  origin,"  says 
Col.  Leake,  "  in  the  highest  part  of  the  mountain" — Olympus 
— "  and  here  issues  between  perpendicular  rocks,  five  or  six 
hundred  feet  in  height.  The  opening  presents  a  magnificent 
view  of  the  summit  of  Elimbo,  the  snowy  tops  and  bare  preci- 
pices of  which  form  a  beautiful  contrast  with  the  rich  woody 
heights  on  either  side  of  the  great  chasm  above  Litokhoro. 
From  the  village  and  opening,  the  ground  falls  on  both  sides  of 
the  river  in  a  long  uneven  slope  to  the  sea-side,  terminating  to 
the  south  at  the  river  of  Platamona,"  the  ancient  Apilas,  "  and  to 
the  north,  extending  to  the  plain  of  Katerina.  The  torrent 
flows  from  Litokhoro  in  a  wide  bed,  between  precipitous  banks, 
which  gradually  diminish  in  height  to  the  sea.  On  the  opposite 
side  of  the  gulf  are  seen  Saloniki,"  the  ancient  Theosalonica, 
"Cape  Karaburnu,"  the  ^nean  promontory,  "Mount  Kortiatzi, 
and  a  range  of  mountains,  which   a|)pear  to  form  a  continued 


210  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS    PAULLUS. 

range  from  the  latter  summit,  as  far  as  the  extreme  cape  of 
Pallene.  It  is  reckoned  four  hours  from  hence  to  the  Monas- 
tery of  St.  Dionysius,  which  is  situated  just  below  the  summit 
of  Olympus,  not  far  from  the  head  of  the  great  ravine  of 
Litokhoro." 

Bearing  this  description  in  mind,  the  reader  will  easily  follow 
the  thread  of  events  that  ensued,  underetanding  that  the  sea- 
coast  trends  nearly  north  and  south  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Peneius,  or  Salamvria,  to  Pydna,  the  scene  of  the  ensuing 
action ;  the  sea  lying  to  the  eastward,  and  the  huge  masses  of 
Olympus  thrusting  themselves  forward,  like  a  huge  pastion  pro- 
truding from  the  continuous  range  of  the  Cambunian  mountains, 
and  with  them  barring  the  whole  southern  frontier  of  Mace- 
donia. 

Through  this  barrier  there  are  but  three  passes.  The  firet  is 
this,  of  the  Enipeus  and  Dium,  by  the  sea- shore;  which,  from 
its  origin  at  the  Apilas  or  Platamona,  to  its  descent  into  the 
beautiful  plain  of  Katerina,  beyond  the  Turkish  \nllage  of  An- 
dreotissa,  is  about  fifteen  British  statute  miles  in  length ;  and 
nowhere  exceeds  two  and  a  half  miles,  or  twenty  stadia,  in 
width.  Of  this  pass  the  Enipeus,  or  Litokhoro,  is  the  first  great 
line  of  defence ;  and  the  strong  town  of  Dium,  standing  at  its 
narrowest  point,  where  the  space  between  the  sea  and  the  pre- 
cipitous shoulder  of  Olympus  is  narrowed  one  half  by  the  im- 
passable swamps  of  the  river  Baphyrus,  is  its  key. 

About  eighteen  or  twenty  miles  inland,  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Enipeus,  and  due  northwest  from  it,  lies  the  second  pass  of 
Petra,  having  the  castle  of  Pythium,  as  an  outpost,  some  five 
miles  in  its  front.  This  pass  is  said  by  Polybius,  who  was  fami- 
liar with  the  country,  to  be  ten  stades,  or  about  a  mile  and  a 
quarter  in  height,  and,  crossing  the  neck  which  connects 
Olympus  proper  to  Mount  Pierus,  of  the  Cambunian  chain, 
gives  access  to  the  plain  of  Katerina,  in   the  rear  of  Dium,  so 


PASSES    OF    PETBA    AND    VOLUSTANA.  211 

that  by  it  the  first  pass  and  its  defences  can  be  turned  to  the 
left. 

Again,  due  west  of  the  pass  of  Petra,  at  the  distance  of 
twenty  miles,  as  the  crow  flies,  hes  the  third  pass  of  Volustana, 
now  Servia,  over  the  ridge  of  the  Cambunian  chain,  giving 
access  to  the  chasm  of  the  Haliacmon,  now  the  Vistritza,  and 
thence  by  the  lake  Begorritis  and  the  valley  of  the  Lydias,  <>j: 
Karasmak,  to  the  interior  of  Macedonia,  and  the  royal  residence 
of  Pella. 

By  this  last  pass  it  was,  that  Perseus  himself  had  come  dowi^ 
from  his  metropolis  at  the  commencement  of  the  war ;  and,  in 
the  opening  of  the  last  campaign,  he  had  garrisoned  it  so 
strongly  with  ten  thousand  targe teers,  under  Asclepiodotus,  that 
the  consul,  Marcius,  did  not  choose  to  attack  it,  but,  Tempe 
being  occupied  at  that  time  by  Perseus,  forced  his  way 
through  the  mountains  by  lake  Ascuris,  now  Ezero,  to  the 
position  in  front  of  the  stern  barrier  of  the  Enipeus,  which  the 
army  now  occupied. 

The  pass  of  Volustana  was  still  so  formidably  protected  that 
the  Romans  do  not  appear  to  have  even  contemplated  attack- 
ing it,  this  year ;  but  when  Perseus  heard  of  the  approach  of 
PauUus  JEmilius,  he  sent  five  thousand  Macedonians,  under 
Histigeus,  Theogenes,  and  Medon,  to  secure  Pythium,  and  the 
pass  of  Petra ;  while  he  lay  himself  on  the  Enipeus,  whfch  he 
had  sti'ongly  fortified  with  castles,  palisades,  and  fieldworks 
abundantly  provided  with  artillery,  an  arm  in  which  the  Mace- 
donian kings  were  extremely  powerful. 

At  Thessalonica  lay  Athenagoras,  his  father's  best  general, 
and  Eumenes,  with  two  thousand  targeteers  as  a  garrison  ;  but 
on  the  approach  of  Octavius  with  the  fleet,  which  accompanied 
the  advance  of  Paullus,  becoming  alarmed  for  the  safety  of  the 
coasts,  he  despatched  Androcles  with  reinforcements,  ordering 
him  to  prepare  an  entrenched  camp  in  front  of  the  docks  and 


212  LUCIUS    JEMILIUS    PAULLUS, 

arsenals ;  and  sent  Antigonus  with  a  thousand  horse  to  the 
jEnean  promontory,  cape  Karaburnu,  to  protect  the  rustic 
population  from  any  attempted  descents. 

Having  taken  this  strong  defensive  position,  it  was  the  plan 
of  Perseus  to  risk  nothing,  to  deliver  no  battle  except  in  defence 
of  his  works,  which  he  believed  impregnable,  and  so  to  wear 
out  the  enemy,  until  the  war  should  perish  of  exhaustion. 

The  plan  of  the  campaign  was  indisputably  well  blocked  out ; 
and  the  Roman  commander's  position  was  anything  but  favor- 
able, either^  for  offence  or  defence.  To  force  his  way  forward 
seemed  impossible;  to  subsist  his  army  from  the  rear  by  the 
dangerous  pass  of  Tempe  was  both  difficult  and  insecure ;  and 
to  depend  entirely  on  his  naval  squadron  for  supplies,  was  a  last 
resort,  rather  than  an  intention  of  the  campaign. 

Indeed,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  even  the  talents  of 
JEmilius  could  have  extricated  himself  and  his  army  from  total 
ruin,  had  Perseus,  according  to  his  first  design,  brought  down 
the  Bastarnae  through  all  the  northwestern  passes  from  Olympus 
to  the  Haliacmon,  thrown  them  upon  his  left  flank  and  rear  by 
the  tripolitus  of  Perrhaebia,  and  occupied  the  defiles  of  the 
Peneius,  while  Gentius  and  his  Illyrians  should  have  poured 
down  through  the  Epirotis  and  Dassaretia,  and  taken  possession 
of  the  whole  6f  the  Histiaeotis  and  Pelasgiotis  in  his  rear. 

From  this  peril,  however,  the  Romans  were  relieved  by  the 
deplorable  avarice  and  imbecility  of  the  king,  who  converted  the 
Bastarnae  into  open  enemies  by  his  parsimony,  and  through  a 
wretched  breach  of  faith  allowed  Gentius  to  be  overpowered  and 
made  captive,  with  all  his  family,  within  the  walls  of  his  own 
capital. 

Failing  even  these  auxiliaries,  as  they  need  not  to  have  failed, 
it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  the  consul  could  have  extricated  him- 
self, had  the  garrison  of  the  pass  at  Petra  been  in  sufficient 
strength,  and  sufficiently  wary  for  its  defence. 


TURNING    OF    THE    PASS    OF    DIUM.  213 

It  would  seem,  that  'the  most  obvious  plan,  for  a  general 
having  a  fleet  at  his  command,  would  have  been  either  to  era- 
bark  his  whole  army,  and  change  the  scene  of  operations,  by 
relanding  at  the  mouths  of  the  Axius  and  Lydias — Karasmak 
and  Vardhari — thus  interposing  himself  between  the  king  and 
bis  capital,  treasuries  and  resources,  and  establishing  himself  in 
the  heart  of  Macedonia  proper ;  or  at  least  to  send  round  a 
strong  division  by  sea  to  land  anywhere  along  the  shores  of  the 
plain  of  Katerina,  to  the  north  of  Dium  ;  which  would  have 
produced  the  same  effect  as  the  forcing  of  the  pass  of  Petra,  and 
thus  turning,  with  much  less  danger,  one  would  think,  and  less 
risk  of  failure,  the  position  of  the  king  on  the  Enipeus.  So  ob- 
vious, indeed,  does  the  first  method  appear,  and  so  masterly  a 
stroke  would  it  have  been,  that  I  conclude  there  must  have  ex- 
isted some  cause  which  we  cannot  now  discover,  rendering  it  im- 
possible ;  perhaps  the  insufficiency  of  the  squadron  for  the  trans- 
port of  so  large  a  force ;  since  so  patent  a  method  of  striking  at 
pleasure  where  he  would,  could  hardly  have  escaped  so  clear- 
sighted and  cool-headed  a  soldier  as  Paullus. 

It  is  probable,  also,  that  some  other  obstacle  existed  to  the 
transmission  of  a  smaller  body  of  men,  such  as  that  with  which. 
Scipio  did  actually  turn  the  position  of  Dium,  by  sea,  to  the 
plains  of  Katerina;  which  obstacle  might  be  discovered  in  the 
nature  of  the  coasts  by  personal  investigation,  and  it  is  to  be 
regretted  Colonel  Leake  did  not  extend  his  researches  to  this 
point  of  the  question,  owing,  probably,  to  his  not  having  consi- 
dered it  in  this  fight. 

When  Paullus  first  arrived  at  his  position  between  the 
Apilas,  or  rivulet  of  Platamona,  and  the  Enipeus,  the  former 
being  entirely  dry,  with  the  exception  of  a  little  which 
lay  in  a  few  stagnant  pools  near  the  shore,  his  army  sufiered 
considerably  from  the  want  of  water ;  until  suspecting  the  ex- 
istence of  secret   subterranean   channels  from   the  absence  of 


214  LUCIUS   JSMILIUS   PAULLUS. 

visible  streams,  and  the  greenness  of  the  mountain  slopes  to  his 
left,  he  caused  wells  to  be  sunk  along  the  base  of  the  moun- 
tains, and  soon  obtained  a  copious  supply  of  pure  and  limpid 
water,  which  both  recruited  his  men,  aud  raised  his  own  credit 
with  the  soldiery. 

This  done,  he  proceeded  to  introduce  several  changes  into 
the  service,  the  necessity  of  which  would  seem  to  indicate  rather 
a  relaxed  state  of  discipline  on  his  arrival.  The  first  of  these 
was  to  institute  a  system  of  transmitting  orders,  for  all  manoeu- 
vres, silently  and  without  tumult  through  the  ranks  ;  which  was 
effected  by  instructing  the  tribune  of  the  soldiers  to  pass  the 
word  to  the  centurion  of  the  first  cohort  of  the  legion,  and  he 
to  the  centurion  of  the  second,  and  so  on  throughout,  whether 
the  order  was  to  be  transmitted  from  the  van  to  the  rear,  or 
vice  versa.  It  is  singular  enough,  if  such  be  the  case,  that  so 
simple  a  system  should  have  occurred  to  no  leader  of  so  martial 
a  nation  as  the  Romans,  before  Vaullus  ;  and  that  all  ordera 
should  have  been  given  by  shouting,  a  mode  so  liable  to  be 
misundei-stood,  or  to  be  adopted  by  unauthorized  persons ;  but 
the  fact  can  scarcely  be  doubted,  since  Polybius,  from  whom 
Livy  borrows  his  narrative,  was  a  contemporary,  and  himself  a 
miUtary  man  of  considerable  standing,  who  would,  therefore,  be 
most  unhkely  to  make  such  a  blunder. 

In  the  second  place,  he  ordered  the  sentinels  to  stand  on 
guard  in  future  without  either  shield  or  pike,  since  they  were 
not  on  duty  to  fight,  but  to  watch ;  and  he  had  observed  that 
when  they  became  weary,  the  men  would  lean  on  their  pila, 
and,  propping  their  chins  on  the  edges  of  their  long  bucklers, 
go  dehberately  to  sleep ;  while  the  glitter  of  their  arms  showed 
the  enemy  very  clearly  where  they  were  posted,  aud  how  to 
avoid  them.  In  like  manner,  he  caused  the  outposts,  the  men 
of  which  had  before  his  time  been  kept  on  duty  in  complete 
armor,  with  their  horses  bridled,  from  sunrise  to  sunset,  during 


IMPROVED    DISCIPLINE.  215 

the  arid  summer-heats,  which  in  Greece  are  insupportable,  to  be 
reheved  every  six  hours,  so  that  they  should  be  fresh  at  all 
times  to  encounter  a  sudden  assault. 

When  these  orders  had  been  promulgated  and  regarded  6y 
the  troops  with  approbation,  he  harangued  the  men,  telling 
them,  that  in  a  well  regulated  army  it  was  for  one  general  only, 
either  by  himself,  or  with  the  aid  of  such  council  as  he  should 
elect,  to  consult  and  provide  what  should  be  done.  That  those 
officers  or  men  who  were  not  of  the  councils,  had  no  opinions  to 
deliver  either  secretly  or  aloud.  That  soldiers  had  but  three 
duties  to  look  to — that  their  bodies  should  be  in  the  best  con- 
dition for  strength  and  agility  ;  that  their  arms  should  be  in  the 
nicest  order ;  and  their  food  constantly  cooked  in  anticipation  of 
sudden  orders.  That  for  all  other  things  they  must  trust  to  the 
care  of  the  immortal  gods  and  their  own  commander.  That  in 
armies  where  the  soldiers  debated,  and  the  general  was  swayed 
to  and  fro  by  the  babble  of  the  vulgar  crowd,  no  good  was  to 
be  looked  for.  That  he  would  himself  perform  the  duties  of  a 
commander,  in  giving  them  the  occasion  for  conducting  them- 
selves as  they  should  in  action.  That  they  should  take  no  care 
for  the  future,  but  when  the  signal  should  sound  for  battle,  then 
strive  to  do  their  duty. 

The  consequence  of  these  orders  and  alterations  was  an  incre- 
dible improvement  in  the  discipline,  physical  condition,  and 
morale  of  the  array.  The  men  were  indefatigable  and  constant 
in  exercising  their  bodies,  in  burnishing  and  sharpening  their 
armor  and  weapons,  in  practising  under  arms,  fencing  and  hurl- 
ing the  javelin  ;  so  that  every  one  felt  assured  that  whenever  the 
enemy  would  give  them  an  opportunity  to  deliver  battle,  that 
army  would  close  the  war  by  a  glorious  victory,  or  die  in  tho 
cause  of  honor. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  consul  reconnoitered  the  chasm  of  the 
Enipeus  at  all  points,  where  he  might  cross  it  to  attack  to  tho 


?16  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS   PAULLUS. 

enemy  ;  but  the  solution  was  not  easy,  for  the  river  bed  itself 
lay  in  the  bottom  of  a  vast  gorge  or  trough,  with  precipitous 
walls  of  limestone  rock  on  both  sides  above  three  hundred  yards 
in  height,  with  but  few  accessible  paths  down  the  clefts,  and 
those  steep  and  dangerous  ;  the  breadth  of  the  bottom  of  this 
strange  chasm,  which  in  the  winter  sent  down  a  wild  roaring  tor- 
rent to  the  sea,  filling  the  gorge  from  side  to  side,  was  a  thousand 
paces,  rough,  and  broken  with  great  bouldei*s  and  deep-cut 
water-courses,  through  which  flowed  deviously  a  swift,  but 
scanty  stream.  The  farther  side  was  fortified  with  towers 
and  bastions  on  all  the  crags  and  salient  points,  and  with 
breastworks  and  palisades  closing  all  the  rifts  and  passes  of  the 
rocks,  and  bristling  with  catapults,  and  mighty  cross-bows,  and 
all  the  terrible  artillery  of  the  day. 

Nor  if  the  consul  was  on  the  alert,  was  Perseus  less  energetic 
or  awake.  Seeing  that  Paullus  was  intent  to  pass,  he  moved 
his  camp  nearer  to  the  chasm,  and  as  often  as  he  saw  the  head 
of  a  Roman  column  moving,  with  its  blood-red  bannei*s  flashing 
above  the  glittering  pila,  some  corresponding  movement,  on  his 
side,  showed  that  the  Roman's  intention  was  anticipated,  and 
that  there  could  be  no  passage  had  across  the  Enipeus,  without 
the  severest  fighting,  in  the  teeth  of  obstacles  which  seemed 
even  to  the  Roman  legionaries  insurmountable. 

Thus  for  some  days  lay  the  two  armies  face  to  face,  on  the 
alert  indeed,  but  as  yet  inactive,  and  never,  says  Livy,  did  two 
so  considerable  hosts  lie  so  close  encamped,  in  such  tranquillity 
and  repose. 

In  the  mean  time,  news  arrived  which  increased  the  spirit  of 
the  Romans  in  no  less  degree  than  it  depressed  the  morale  of 
the  Macedonian  army,  that  Gentius  had  been  utterly  conquered 
in  Illyria  by  the  praetor  Anicius,  and  with  his  entire  family,  and 
state,  and  people,  had  surrendered  to  the  Roman  Republic  ;  and 
shortly  after  this  the  hostages  of  the  Illyrians  were  brought  into 


COUNCIL    OF    WAR.  217 

the  Roman  camp,  by  which  the  circumstances  became  known 
throughout  the  country,  although  the  king  had  taken  all  the 
means  in  his  power  to  prevent  the  dissemination  of  the  news. 
A  few  days  afterwards,  the  Rhodian  ambassadors  arrived  at 
head-quarters,  with  the  same  threats  which  had  excited  so  much 
indignation  at  Rome  among  the  senators;  that  they  would 
make  common  cause,  namely,  with  Perseus,  unless  the  Romans 
would  grant  him  peace.  If  the  civil  assemblies  in  Rome  had 
been  indignant,  much  more  furious  were  the  members  of  the 
military  council ;  and  some  would  have  had  the  envoys  driven 
headlong  out  of  the  camps,  without  an  answer ;  but  the  consul 
decided  that  they  should  remain  a  fortnight,  at  the  end  of 
which  time  he  would  give  them  their  answer. 

This  done,  as  if,  of  set  purpose,  to  show-  the  Rhodians  how 
small  weight  Rome  attached  to  their  protest  or  their  attempts 
at  pacification,  he  held  a  council  of  war  as  to  the  best  method 
of  operating  against  the  enemy. 

Some,  and  especially  the  veterans  of  the  old  school,  were  for 
forcing  the  passage  of  the  Enipeus  at  all  hazards  ;  for  they 
insisted,  that  the  Macedonians  would  not  stand  an  assault  of  the 
Romans  en  masse,  but  would  desert  their  works,  as  they  had 
done  much  stronger  places,  during  the  past  campaign,  at  the 
first  onslaught. 

Others  would  have  Octavius  sent  with  the  squadron  sent 
against  Thessalonica,  thinking  by  such  a  diversion  to  compel 
Pei"seus  to  withdraw  a  portion  of  his  forces  from  the  chasm  of 
the  Enipeus,  v^hich  they  insisted  was  impregnable,  no  less 
from  the  nature  of  the  ground,  than  from  the  superiority  of  the 
enemy  in  artillery  and  missiles. 

To  neither  of  these  counsels,  however,  did  iEmilius  lend  his 

ear ;  but,  dismissing  the  council,  without  himself  expressing  an 

opinion,  he  caused  to  be  summoned  to  his  presence  two  traders 

of  Perrhsebia,  men  whose  good  faith  and  acquaintance  with  the 

10 


218  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS    PAULLUS. 

country  were  both  well  known  to  him,  Caenus  and  Menophilus 
by  name,  from  whom  he  secretly  enquired,  what,  and  how  easy 
of  access  were  the  passes  of  Pen*hsebia. 

They  replying,  that  the  road  over  the  pass  of  Petra  was  of 
no  peculiar  difficulty,  if  undefended,  but  that  it  was  now  formi- 
dably occupied  by  the  King's  troops,  he  at  once  decided  to  turn 
the  right  of  Perseus  by  that  pass  ;  believing  it  certain,  that  it 
could  be  carried,  and  the  en^my  thrown  down  from  the  heights, 
by  an  unforeseen  night  attack  ;  in  which  the  Macedonians  would 
lose  the  advantage  of  their  superiority  in  the  use  of  missiles  and 
archery,  and  the  success  of  the  Roman  soldier  at  close  quarters, 
with  his  favorite  weapon,  the  stabbing  sword,  might  be  regarded 
as  certain. 

Having  determined,  then,  on  this  line  of  operation,  he  en- 
trusted the  conduct  of  the  enterprise  to  Publius  Cornelius 
Scipio  Nasica,  and  to  his  own  son,  Fabius  Maximus,  as  his  second 
in  command.  There  is  a  slight  discrepancy  in  the  accounts  of 
this  affair,  as  given  by  Polybius  and  Plutarch,  the  latter  of 
whom  professes  to  narrate  what  occurred,  on  the  authority  of 
Scipio  himself  in  a  letter  to  a  certain  barbarian  king  ;  the  latter 
stating  the  detached  force  to  have  consisted  of  three  thousand 
Italians,  meaning,  probably,  Romans,  and  five  thousand  Latin 
allies  of  the  left  wing,  while  Livy,  on  the  faith  of  Polybius,  rates 
the  whole  force  at  five  thousand  only. 

In  order  to  conceal  his  intentions,  Paullus  sent  orders 
to  Octavius,  who  lay  with  the  fleet  at  Heracleia,  some  eight 
miles  in  his  rear,  close  to  the  mouth  of  tl^e  Peneius  and 
the  commencement  of  the  pass  of  Tempe,  to  have  food  cooked 
enough  to  supply  a  thousand  men  with  ten  days'  rations ;  and, 
giving  out  that  he  was  about  to  attempt  an  expedition  against 
some  place  on  the  coast,  instructed  Scipio  to  march  to  the  naval 
station,  as  if  with  a  view  to  embarcation.  This  done,  he  was 
directed  by  a  long  detour  of  above  sixty  miles  through  the 


SKIRMISHIl^G.  219 

defiles  of  Terape,  and  thence  by  way  of  Phalanna,  now  Kara- 
joli,  in  the  gorges  of  Mount  Titarus,  Oloosson,  and  Pythium,  on 
the  south-western  dechvity  of  Olympus,  to  force  the  pass  of 
Petra,  and  descend  into  the  plain  of  Pieria,  near  the  town  of 
Hatera,  now  Katerina,  in  the  rear  of  the  King's  position. 

This  march  was  calculated  to  occupy  three  days,  and  the  de- 
parture of  the  detachment  was  so  timed,  that  it  should  arrive  at 
Petra  in  the  dead  of  night,  and  assail  the  enemy  before  they 
should  be  conscious  of  its  approach. 

On  the  following  morning  at  day-break,  in  order  to  divert  the 
king's  attention  from  what  was  in  progress  on  his  rear,  the  con- 
sul attacked  the  outposts  of  the  Macedonians,  who  were  sta- 
tioned in  the  bottom  of  the  great  trough,  through  which  flowed 
the  torrent  Enipeus,  with  his  light  infantry,  the  extreme  rug- 
gedness  of  the  banks  and  the  precipitous  cliffs  of  six  hundred 
feet  descent,  prevehting  the  h^avy  infantry  from  joining  in  the 
action.  A  series  of  fierce  skirmishes  took  place  through  the 
whole  length  of  the  chasm,  every  thicket  of  dwarf  oaks  and 
arbutus,  every  knoll  and  gully  being  occupied,  on  this  side  or 
on  that,  by  the  archers,  javelineei*s,  and  slingers,  and  resolutely 
contested,  with  more  loss  of  hfe,  than  prospect  of  advantage. 

In  the  use  of  missiles  the  Macedonians  and  their  barbarian 
allies  were  vastly  superior ;  they  had,  moreover,  recently  intro- 
duced a  new  weapon,  which  is  described  as  a  wooden  shaft,  of 
about  twelve  inches,  provided  with  three  wooden  projections, 
resembling  the  feathers  of  an  arrow,  and  armed  with  a  steel 
head  of  six  inches.  This  was  driven  from  a  sling,  consisting  of 
two  cords  of  unequal  length,  with  fearful  velocity,  and  penetrat- 
ing the  stoutest  armor,  inflicted  ghastly  wounds,  and  did 
terrible  execution. 

On  the  one  side,  Pei*seus,  full  of  confidence  in  the  impregnable 
strength  of  his  position,  in  his  strong  works,  and  his  admirable 
skirmishers,  looked  down  from  his  castles  on  the  height ;  on  the 


220  LUCIUS   ^MILIUS   PAULLUS. 

other  side,  the  consul,  with  his  legious,  observed  from  the  ram* 
parts  of  his  camp,  the  reeling  of  the  doubtful  fray,  well 
pleased,  we  may  be  certain,  as  hour  after  hour  passed  by  of  the 
long  Grecian  summer  day,  and  still  the  King  showed  no  sign 
of  consciousness  that  an  enemy  was  already  on  his  flank,  and 
would  soon  be  in  his  rear. 

From  the  first  paling  of  the  east,  till  the  noonday  sun  was 
blazing  in  the  zenith,  the  chasm  of  theEnipeus  rocked  and  rang 
to  the  din  of  the  Roman  trumpets,  prolonged  by  a  thousand 
echoes,  to  the  war-cries  of  the  barbarous  auxiliaries,  to  the  hurt- 
ling of  the  close-shot  missiles,  and  once  and  again  to  the  clash 
and  clatter  of  close  combat,  when  the  Romans  joined  hand  to 
hand. 

On  both  sides  the  men  fell  fast,  the  scanty  waters  of  the 
summer  dried  river  were  crimsoned  with  blood  and  half  choked 
with  carnage.  So  long  as  they  were  at  shot  of  arrow  and 
javelin  distance,  the  Romans  suffered  the  most ;  but  whenever 
the  ground  allowed  them  to  close,  the  superiority  of  that  admi- 
rable infantry  became  apparent,  and  the  legionary  soldier  ap- 
proved himself  both  steadier  and  stronger  than  the  shield-bear- 
ing Macedonian  or  the  bucklered  Ligurian. 

Still  the  loss  of  iEmilius  was  the  heavier  ;  and  as  he  had  • 
no  interest  in  pressing  matters  beyond  the  mere  creating  a 
diversion,  he  caused  the  trumpets  to  sound  the  recall  at  noon, 
and  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  Perseus  set  his  watches  for 
the  night,  and  reoccupy  his  position,  apparently  satisfied  with 
the  day's  result,  and  unconcerned  as  to  the  future. 

On  the  following  day,  the  same  scene  was  enacted,  saving 
this  only,  that  the  minds  of  the  men  being  excited  and  their 
animosites  enkindled  by  the  preceding  conflict ;  they  fought 
more  desperately  and  with  greater  individual  prowess  than 
before.  The  Romans,  resolute  to  maintain  their  old  renown, 
came  on  so  dauntless,  through  the  storm  of  desolating  missiles, 


PLUTARCH    AND    POLYBIUS.  221 

with  the  sword,  that  the  light  troops  of  Perseus  could  hold  no 
head  against  them,  but  fell  back  step  by  step,  first  slowly,  then 
in  confusion,  then  almost  in  total  route,  until  they  were  rallied 
at  last,  and  made  a  new  stand  under  the  cover  of  their  works. 

Then  the  great  engines,  and  all  the  formidable  artillery  of 
the  Macedonians  opened  upon  the  velites  of  ^milius.  The 
huge  falaricce  and  massive  stones  tore  their  way  through  and 
through  them,  striking  down  even  the  rear  ranks,  as  they  press- 
ed on  to  assault  the  works ;  but  still  they  kept  the  ground 
which  they  had  won,  though  under  terrific  loss,  nor  did  they 
waver  in  the  least,  or  cease  from  the  conflict,  until  they  were 
called  off  by  signal  at  a  somewhat  later  hour  than  on  the  pre- 
ceding day. 

Again  Perseus  returned  in  perfect  security  to  his  quarters, 
and  the  consul  betook  himself  to  his  camp,  anxious  indeed,  but 
full  of  sanguine  hope  that  his  manoeuvre  was,  by  this  time, 
beyond  the  risk  of  failure. 

On  this  night,  in  effect,  Scipio  Nasica  reached  the  town  of 
Pythium  in  the  first  hours  of  darkness,  and,  enveloping  the 
place  with  a  cordon  of  posts  and  sentries,  so  that  no  tidings 
should  be  conveyed  to  the  Macedonian  garrison  in  the  pass  of 
Petra,  gave  his  men  several  hours  of  rest  to  recruit  them  from 
the  fatigues  of  their  long  and  toilsome  march,  and  to  prepare 
them  for  the  last  and  most  formidable  ascent,  and  the  storm  of 
the  heights. 

And  here  occurs  a  second  discrepancy  between  the  narrations 
of  Plutarch  and  Polybius ;  in  which  we  shall  have  little  diffi- 
culty in  adopting  the  relation  of  the  latter,  as  most  agreeable 
both  to  probability  and  the  state  of  affairs  at  the  time,  besides 
that  he  was  a  contemporary,  and  almost  an  eye-witness,  of  the 
events  which  he  describes. 

It  is  stated  by  Plutarch  that  Perseus  was  informed  by  a 
Cretan  deserter  of  the  arrival  of  Scipio's  detachment,  which  he 


222  LUCIUS  ^MILIUS    PAULLUS. 

makes  to  have  accomplished  the  whole  march  in  a  single  day, 
and  then,  nor  till  then,  sent  an  opposing  force  of  ten  thousand 
mercenaries  and  three  thousand  Macedonians,  under  Milo,  to 
defend  the  pass  of  Petra ;  who,  he  says,  were  beaten  after  a 
severe  engagement,  in  which  Scipio  fought  hand  to  hand  with  a 
Thracian,  whom  he  slew,  the  Macedonian  leader  flying  dis- 
honorably in  his  shirt. 

Polybius,  an  old  and  accomplished  soldier,  relates  the  se- 
quence of  events  as  above  stated  in  the  text,  merely  adding 
that  the  Macedonians  were  surprised  in  their  sleep,  and  cut  to 
pieces  oi*  driven  down  the  heights,  in  an  affair  of  a  few  minutes 
duration.  A  single  glance  at  the  map  will  show  the  extent  of 
the  march  of  Scipio,  round  two-thirds  of  the  whole  circumfer- 
ence of  the  pile  of  Olympus ;  a  dis-tance  established  by  the  per- 
sonal observation  of  Colonel  Leake,  as  exceeding  sixty  miles, 
over  extremely  difficult  ground,  and  agreeing  perfectly  with  the 
time  assigned  to  the  march  by  Livy,  following  Polybius,  as 
occupying  a  portion  of  three  days.  Plutarch  was  ignorant  of 
th^  ground,  and  wrote,  credulously,  from  hearsay,  and  par- 
tially on  the  authority  of  a  young  soldier,  proud  of  the  ex})loits 
of  his  fii'st  campaign. 

Again,  apart  from  the  direct  assertion   of  Polybius,  that  the 
pass  of  Petra  was  guarded  from  the  opening  of  the  campaign 
by  a  Macedonian  garrison  in  force,  it  is  evident  that  it  must 
have  been  so  guarded ;  for  we  know  that  Perseus  was  aware  of 
its  existence,  since  he  had  protected  it  efficiently  in  the  two  pre- 
vious campaigns  ;  and  had,  by  its  occupation  in  that  immedi- 
ately preceding,  compelled  the  Consul  Marcius  to  force  his  way 
across  the  central  mountain  itself,  between  the  defiles  of  Tempe 
and  the  highland  gorge  in  question.     Furthermore,  had  Scipio 
reached  Pythium,  only  five  miles  distant  from  Petra,  before  any 
garrison  was  placed  at  the  latter  place,  or  any  tidings  of  his 
march  had  reached  the  king,  no  force   could   possibly   havo 


'illE    king's     dang  Ell.  223 

arrived  at  the  spot  from  the  Macedonian  head-quarters,  on  the 
Enipeus,  at  least  twenty  miles  distant  on  the  shortest  possible 
line,  in  time  to  contest  it. 

Lastly,  Perseus  did  not  receive  the  intelligepce  that  Scipio 
was  in  his  rear  until  the  morning  of  the  third  day  had  fully 
broken ;  for  he  still  lay  in  his  quarters  observing  the  consul, 
who  was  manoeuvring  in  his  front  as  if  he  desired  to  pass  the 
chasm  of  the  Enipeus,  by  his  own  right,  lower  down  toward  the 
sea,  where  the  gorge  was  wider  and  less  precipitous. 

For  the  rest,  the  variance  is  trifling.  Even  in  a  sudden  sur- 
prise and  night  attack,  even  where  the  affair  is  but  of  a  few 
minutes  duration,  and  the  surprised  party  is  totally  routed,  there 
is  always  more  or  less  sharp  and  tumultuous  fighting,  the  men 
springing  to  their  arms  on  which  they  were  sleeping,  and  each 
striking,  as  Harry  Wynd  struck,  for  his  own  hand,  and  to  secure 
bis  own  safety,  if  not  his  party's  victory.  It  is,  therefore,  as 
probable  that  Scipio  should  have  killed  a  Thracian  with  his  own 
hand,  in  the  chances  of  a  darkling  skirmish,  as  it  is  natural  that, 
in  the  elation  of  a  maiden  victory,  he  should  have  dwelt  upon 
the  circumstances  and  slightly  magnified  them,  in  describing  the 
events  by  a  gossiping  letter  to  his  friend. 

That  Milo  escaped  in  his  shirt  is  a  corroboration  of  the  fact 
that  he  was  aroused  from  his  bed  to  imminent  battle ;  since  if 
he  had  once  been  armed,  he  would  neither  have  had  the  leisure 
nor  the  desire  to  strip,  preparatory  to  a  flight  down  the  craggy 
declivities  of  Olympus. 

On  the  morning,  therefore,  of  the  third  day  after  his  counter- 
march from  the  Enipeus  to  Heracleia,  Scipio  had  done  his  work 
fully  and  well.  He  was  in  absolute  possession  of  the  heights 
commanding  an  easy  descent  into  the  plains  of  Pieria,  directly 
in  the  rear  of  the  king,  and  having  thus  admirably  executed  the 
plan  of  the  consul  in  turning  the  enemy's  left,  would,  in  a  few 
hours  time,  have  cut  off"  his  retreat  to  the  northward  into  Mace- 


2  24  LUCIUS    JSMILIUS    PAULLUS. 

donia,  and  so  compelled  him  to  fight,  hemmed  in  between  in- 
accessible mountain  heights  on  one  side,  and  two  armies  and  a 
hostile  fleet  on  the  others. 

From  this  predicament  he  extricated  himself  only  by  a  rapid 
retreat,  which  he  commenced  without  a  moment's  delay,  so 
soon  as  the  tidings  were  brought  to  him,  whether  by  a  Cretan 
deserter  from  the  Romans,  or  by  a  fugitive  of  his  own  men, 
and  prosecuted  with  such  celerity  that  he  reached  a  convenient 
battle-ground  in  front  of  the  fortified  town  of  Pydna  before 
noon,  without  any  serious  molestation  from  -^milius,  whose 
movements  were  necessarily  slow  and  cautious,  until  he  had 
passed  the  great  ravine. 

Colonel  Leake,  whom  I  have  already  so  often  quoted,  travel- 
hng  over  precisely  the  same  road  by  which  Perseus  retreated 
with  j^milius  at  his  heels,  found  that  it  occupied  him  one  hour 
and  twenty-five  minutes,  of  ordinary  Turkish  travel,  which  he 
elsewhere  rates  at  about  two  and  three-quarter  English  miles  to 
the  hour,  to  reach  Malathria,  the  site  of  the  ancient  city  of 
Dium ;  the  strong  place  which  Perseus  had  clung  to  so  long, 
and  w'as  now  forced  to  abandon  without  striking  a  blow,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  skillful  march  by  which  Scipio  had  turned  his 
right.  Thence  one  hour  and  twenty  minutes  more  brought  him 
to  "abroad,  rapid  stream,  full  of  fish,  small  in  the  dry  season 
but  after  the  rains  wide,  full  of  quicksands,  and  dangerous  to 
pass."  At  the  end  of  thirty  minutes  further  he  entered  Kate- 
rina,  beyond  the  channel  of  a  broad  charadra,  or  dry  torrent, 
which,  as  it  would  seem,  coincides  with  the  ancient  Hatera,  on 
the  southern  edge  of  the  beautiful  Pierian  plain. 

This  fair  tract  of  mingled  corn  land  and  rich  woods  he 
crossed  in  one  hour  more  to  the  villages  of  great  and  little 
Ayan,  immediately  beyond  which  the  heights  commence,  still 
cultivated,  and  adorned  by  two  antique  tumuh  on  the  right 
hand   slope   toward  the  sea,  which   he  regards  as  fixing  the 


THE    CONSUI/S   PURSUIT.  225 

locality  either  of  the  actual  field  of  battle,  or  of  the  site  of  the 
royal  city,  Pydna. 

The  distance  and  the  structure  of  the  land  both  accurately 
correspond  with  Livy^s  narrative  ;  the  former  being  from 
twelve  to  fourteen  miles,  while  the  latter  exactly  coincides 
with  the  events  of  the  battle  ;  for  there  is  in  front  of  Ay  an 
a  plain,  affording  room  for  the  manoeuvres  of  the  phalanx, 
traversed  by  a  small  river  of  two  branches,  and  bordered  by 
heights  such  as  would  give  convenient  retreat  and  shelter  to 
light  infantry,  precisely  as  described  by  Livy,  Strabo,  and 
Plutarch  ;  whereas  the  whole  country  northward,  so  far  as 
Methone,  now  Elefthero-khori,  in  the  midst  of  which  Kitro — 
where  some  persons  have  placed  Pydna* — is  situated,  ''  affords 
no  sufficient  plain,  but  consists,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
level  spaces  on  the  seashore,  entirely  of  the  last  falls  of  a  moun- 
tain, which  Plutarch  names  Olocrus." 

Immediately  on  discovering  the  retreat  of  Perseus,  the  consul 
extricated  himself  from  the  chasm  of  the  Enipeus  with  as  much 
speed  as  was  consistent  with  good  order  ;  and  pursuing  him 
through  Dium,  between  the  swampy  lagoon  of  the  Baphyrus 
and  the  inaccessible  crags  of  Olympus — a  strong  place  and 
capable  of  long  defence,  but  now  completely  turned  and  ren- 
dered untenable  by  Scipio^s  detachment,  which  was  already  in 
its  rear — effected  his  junction  with  his  lieutenants  in  the  Pierian 
plain,  into  which  they  had  descended  so  goon  as  they  had  won 
the  pass  of  Petra.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  move- 
ment was  effected  down  the  valley  of  the  strong  stream,  which 
Leake  crossed  in  an  hour  and  twenty  minutes  after  leaving 
Malathria,  on  the  ancient  site  of  Dium  ;  since  that  stream, 
*/  which  receives  most  of  the  waters  from  the  northern  end  of 
Olympus,  as  well  as  those  which  descend  from  the  southern 
extremity  of  its  continuation,  the  Pierian  ridge,"  has  its  source 
*  Strabo  (Epit.  1.  7),  p.  330.     Schol  in  Demosth.  Olynth.  1. 


226  LUCIUS    uEMlLIUS    PAULLU3. 

close  to  the  summit,  in  the  very  pass  of  Petra.  Thence, 
hurrying  across  the  beautiful  Pierian  plain,  here  ten  miles  in 
breadth  from  the  sea  to  the  hills,  and  about  six  or  seven  miles 
in  length,  he  came  to  the  banks  of  the  little  river  with  its  two 
branches,  called  by  the  countrymen  JEson  and  Leucus,  in  the 
rear  of  which,  and  in  front  of  the  strong  town  of  Pydna,  the 
powerful  and  splendid  army  of  Perseus,  formidable  in  numbers, 
excellent  in  discipline,  admirable  and  glorious  in  armature,  was 
advantageously  posted,  ready  to  deliver  battle. 

This  distance,  which  Colonel  Leake  actually  traversed  in 
about  four  hours  and  a  half  with  the  miserable  Turkish  post 
horses,  the  consul  accomplished  by  mid-day,  having  broken  up 
from  his  former  camp  at  daybreak,  which  is  very  early  during 
the  summer  soltice  in  Greece,  and  having  his  forces  already 
under  arms  and  in  the  field,  when  the  king  evacuted  his  lines 
and  began  his  retreat. 

This,  although  it  would  be  considered  a  remarkable  feat  of 
marching,  has  often  been  equalled  in  modern  days,  and  is  cer- 
tainly by  no  means  an  astonishing  or  impossible  forced  march 
for  a  Roman  army,  inured  as  it  always  was,  beyond  any  that  the 
world  has  since  witnessed,  to  fatigues,  hardships,  and  muscular 
exertion. 

It  was  on  the  21st  of  June,  168  b.  c,  as  rendered  positively 
certain  by  the  eclipse  which  occurred  the  same  night,*  and  not 
on  the  3d  of  September,  as  erroneously  stated  by  Livy,  that 
jEmilius  had  at  length  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  that  enemy 
who,  during  three  campaigns,  had  completely  baffled  as  many 
Roman  consuls,  and  whom,  a  few  short  hours  before,  he  had 
himself  scarcely  hoped  to  draw  into  the  field,  now  forced  to 
offer  battle  ;  and  that  in  a  situation  where  he  had  no  works  or 
artificial  defences,  no  natural  strength  of  ground  on  which  to 

*  Nocte,  quam  pridie  nonas  Septembres  insecuta  est  dies. — Livy 
xliv.  37. 


CASTRAMETATION.  22 1 

rely  ;  whence  farther  retreat  was  impossible  ;  and  where  it 
must  now  be  determined  only  by  the  respective  skill  of  the 
leaders,  and  discipline  and  valor  of  the  soldiers,  which  had  the 
better  cause. 

But  the  heat  was  excessive;  the  fatigue  of  marching  in  heavy 
armor,  which  reflected  and  redoubled  every  sunbeam,  through 
the  dust  and  glare  of  noon,  had  been  intolerable  ;  water  was 
scarce  along  the  line  of  march,  and  the  men  were  suffering  sen- 
sibly from  thirst,  the  worst  of  pests  to  an  army  on  the  eve  of 
battle. 

Yet  so  high  was  the  ardor  of  the  men  and  so  eagerly  did  they 
clamor  to  be  led  on  the  instant  against  the  enemy,  that  JEmi- 
lius  did  not  deem  it  prudent  to  damp  their  spirits  by  an  open 
refusal,  though  he  had  no  thought  of  assailing  such  a  body  as 
the  famous  Macedonian  phalanx  on  ground  of  its  own  choosing, 
with  men  exhausted  by  the  heat  and  thirst  of  a  mid-summer 
forced  march  ;  he  had  recourse,  therefore,  to  a  stratagem  by 
which  he  kept  his  own  men  satisfied,  and  the  king  in  doubt  as 
to  his  future  movements. 

To  this  end,  while  the  officers  were  arraying  and  forming 
the  men,  he  hurried  the  tribunes  of  the  soldiers  and  urged  them 
to  accelerate  their  motions,  so  that  there  was  much  rapid  march- 
ing and  counter-marching  under  the  blazing  sun  ;  while  he 
himself  rode  to  and  fro,  animating  the  men  by  harangues  and 
exhortation,  as  if  he  were  about  to  lead  them  to  immediate 
action.  At  first,  the  men  cheered  lustily,  and  demanded  to  be 
led  without  delay  to  the  attack,  but  before  their  formation  was 
completed,  the  heat  waxing  greater  and  greater  as  the  day  ad- 
vanced, their  visages  became  less  animated,  their  voices  lost 
their  cheery  tones,  and  ere  long  many  were  seen,  though  still 
keeping  their  ranks,  to  rest  upon  their  spears,  or  prop  their 
weary  bodies  on  their  long  shields.  So  soon  as  he  perceived 
that  this  state  of  things  was  apparent,  he  openly  commanded 


228  LUCIUS   iEMILIUS    PAULLUS. 

the  centurions  of  the  first  cohorts  to  measure  and  stake  out  the 
face  of  a  retrenched  camp,  and  to  station  the  baggage,  where- 
upon the  soldiers  openly  expressed  their  satisfaction  that  they 
were  not  called  upon  to  fight  under  heat  so  intolerable  ;  for  they 
had  already  become  sensible  of  what,  in  their  first  eagerness  to 
engage,  they  had  overlooked,  their  own  lassitude  and  languor. 

All  his  lieutenants  and  all  the  leaders  of  allies,  among  these 
Attains  of  Pergamus,  were  about  the  generaPs  person,  and  all 
had  approved  his  intention  to  attack  without  delay,  for  even  to 
these  he  had  not  yet  opened  his  true  mind.  When  they  per- 
ceived his  altered  disposition,  all  the  rest  held  their  peace,  none 
disapproving,  except  Scipio  ISTasica.  He  presuming  perhaps  a 
little  on  his  recent  services,  took  on  himself  to  admonish  the 
consul  of  the  danger  of  allowing  the  enemy  to  escape,  which 
he  would  surely  do  by  night,  when  he  would  have  the  power 
to  wear  him  out  among  the  fastnesses  of  Macedonia,  and  to 
elude  all  his  efforts  to  bring  him  to  battle,  as  he  had  those  of  all 
former  commanders. 

^milius,  though  he  might  well  have  been  offended  at  such 
freedom,  even  from  so  distinguished  a  youth,  contented  himself 
with  replying  good-naturedly  ; ''  I  also  once  held,  O  Nasica,  the 
opinions  which  you  now  hold,  and  you  will  one  day  hold  such  as 
I  do  now.  In  many  chances  of  war  I  have  learned  when  to  de- 
liver and  when  to  refuse,  battle.  Now  when  we  are  in  array 
it  is  no  time  to  teach  you  wherefore  it  is  best  to  abstain  to-day. 
Seek  that  on  another  day.  Now  rest  content  with  the  authority 
of  a  veteran  general." 

To  this  of  course,  there  was  no  reply,  and  so  soon  as  the 
camp  was  traced  and  the  baggage  stationed,  Paullus  drew  of 
the  triarii,  who  were,  as  usual,  in  the  reserve  ;  then  the  principes 
of  the  second  Une,  the  hastati  who  were  in  the  front  rank  re- 
maining under  arms  to  check  any  movement  of  the  enemy, 
should  he  venture  to  attack.    Lastly  he  retired  the  hastati,  cen- 


CAIUS    SULPICIUS    GALLUS.  229 

tury  by  century,  countermarching  to  the  rear  from  the  right, 
while  the  light  troops  and  the  cavahy  still  kept  face  to  the 
Macedonians,  nor  did  he  withdraw  these  until  the  front  of  the 
camp  was  perfectly  fortified,  and  the  ditch  completed  all 
around  it. 

Perseus,  although  willing  to  have  accepted  battle,  was  well 
content  to  defer  it  until  the  morrow,  his  soldiery  being  cheered 
by  the  idea  that  the  Romans  had  declined  battle,  and  drew  off 
on  his  side  to  his  quarters,  under  the  walls  of  Pydna. 

So  soon  as  the  camp  was  fortified,  Caius  Sulpicius  Gallus, 
who  had  been  praetor  in  the  preceding  year,  a  man  of  sufficient 
science  and  astronomical  skill — vast  science  for  those  days ! — 
to  calculate  eclipses,  by  the  consul's  permission,  harangued  a 
general  convocation  of  the  soldiers,  telling  them  that  the  moon 
would  be  obscured  from  the  second  to  the  fourth  hour  of  the 
coming  night — that  is  to  say,  from  about  half-past  nine  to 
eleven  o'clock,  modern  time* — and  that  this  would  occur  from 
purely  natural  causes,  the  moon  being  in  fact  obscured  by  the 
shadow  of  the  earth.  Wherefore  none  should  be  alarmed,  nor 
deem  it  a  prodigy,  since  it  was  by  no  means  more  remarkable 
than  that  the  new  moon  should  increase  and  the  old  decrease, 
both  phenomena  being  attributable  to  the  ^ame  cause. 

At  the  hour  which  he  had  specified  the  moon  began  to  be 
obscured,  but  the  soldiers  in  consequence  of  the  words  of  Gallus 
were  not  alarmed,  only  they  admired  what  they  deemed  the 
superhuman  wisdom  of  the  man.  JEmilius,  however,  who,  as 
we  have  seen,  was  a  great   augur  and   accurate  observer  of  the 

*  The  division  of  the  day  and  night,  each  into  twelve  equal  hours, 
was  as  yet  unknown.  The  natural  day  from  sunrise  to  sunset,  and  the 
night  vice  versdj  were  yet  in  use ;  and,  of  course,  the  hours  varied  in 
length.  At  the  summer  solstice  the  day  began  at  4h.  27m.  and  ended 
at  7h.  33m.  The  night  began  at  7h.  34m.  and  ended  at  3h.  33m.  The 
twelve  hours  of  the  day  consisted  each  of  Ih.  15m.  30s. :  of  the  night  of 
44m.  30s. 


230  LUCIUS    .EMILIUS    PAULLUS. 

* 

old  ceremonies,  although  his  liberal  mind  and  clear  intelligence 
led  him  to  permit  the  explanation  of  Gallus,  whether  that  he 
did  not  himself  accept  it,  but  clung  to  the  old  belief,  or  that  he 
deemed  it  wise  to  humor  the  superstitions  and  amuse  the  minds 
of  the  soldiery,  caused  them,  according  to  the  ritual,  to  ob- 
serve the  period  of  obscuration  with  the  clangor  of  brazen 
utensils  and  the  kindhng  of  bonfires  and  beacons,  until  the 
moonlight  should  return.  At  all  events,  the  Romans  were  not 
dismayed,  but,  on  the  contrary,  when  the  full  disc  reappeared 
in  all  her  glory  at  the  exact  moment  predicted  by  their  tribune, 
were  filled  with  great  joy  and  certain  expectation  of  victory.  In 
the  camp  of  the  Macedonians,  on  the  other  hand,  all  was  con- 
sternation and  dismay,  and  the  rumor  went  secretly  abroad  that 
the  phantom  of  Pei'seus  had  been  seen  in  the  eclipse,  and  that 
his  fall  was  portended  by  the  prodigy. 

On  the  morrow,  the  consul  sacrificed  and  sought  a  favorable 
omen  from  the  entrails  of  the  victims,  but  until  the  twenty-fii-st 
ox  was  slain,  and  it  was  already  the  third  hour,  6h.  58m.,  a.m., 
the  signs  were  unpropitious ;  then  at  length  it  was  announced 
that  acting  on  the  defensive  the  Romans  should  have  the  day. 

Even  then,  however,  the  consul  shewed  no  eagerness  for 
action,  but  called  a  council  of  war  and  explained  the  reasons  of 
his  inactivity  on  the  preceding  day,  and  his  plans  for  the 
future. 

Neither  party,  indeed,  seemed  greatly  to  desire  instant  action, 
and  preferred  waiting  an  occasion  of  advantage  to  making  a 
direct  attack.  It  was  not  likely,  in  fact,  that  the  King,  after 
omitting  to  commence  the  battle  when  the  legionaries  were 
weary  and  exhausted,  the  day  before,  and  their  line  of  battle 
but  imperfectly  formed,  should  venture  to  assail  them  now  in 
tKeir  works,  ^milius,  according  to  Livy,  had  neither  wood  nor 
forage  in  his  camp,  and  had  sent  out  parties  to  collect  both, 
Therefore  he  was  willing  to  abide  his  time. 


THE    MORN    OF    BATTLE.  231 

About  the  ninth  hour,  however,  2h.  31m.  p.m.,  a  circumstanco 
occurred,  whether  by  accident,  or,  as  some  authors  say,  by  the 
design  of  JSmilius,  desirous  to  deliver  battle  agreeably  to  the 
conditions  prescribed  by  the  augurs,  of  acting  on  the  defensive, 
which  soon  brought  on  a  general  action. 

The  little*  river,  from  which  both  armies  watered,  lay  nearer 
to  the  enemy's  camp  that  that  of  the  Romans,  and  out-posts 
were  stationed  on  either  bank  to  protect  the  watering  parties. 
On  the  side  of  ^milius  were  two  cohorts,  the  Marrucinian  and 
Pelignian,  and  two  troops  of  Saramite  horse,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Marcus  Sergius  Silus,  and  in  addition  to  these,  imme- 
diately in  front  of  the  hues,  a  stationary  guard,  under  Caius 
Cluvius,  consisting  of  the  Firman,  Vestine,  and  Cremonense 
cohorts,  and  the  Placentine  and  jEsernine  troops — all  these  of 
the  Italian  allies. 

On  the  enemy's  bank  was  an  advanced  guard  of  eight 
hundred  Thracians ;  but  between  these  parties  all  was  quiet, 
and  until  nearly  three  o'clock  of  the  afternoon  there  seemed  no 
prospect  of  any  active  operations. 

At  length,  while  both  the  outposts  were  standing  tranquilly 
on  guard,  a  baggage  horse  escaped  from  the  hands  of  the 
Roman  grooms,  who  were  tending  the  animals,  and  dashed  into 
the  river,  not  above  knee-deep  at  that  time  and  season 

Three  of  the  soldiers  having  dashed  into  the  water  in  pur- 
suit, speedily  brought  it  back,  though  it  had  been  captured  by 
two  Thracians,  who  were  leading  it  across  the  channel  toward 
their  own  bank  ;   and  one  of  these  was  slain. 

A  few  ©f  the  Thracian  advanced  guard,  irritated  at  seeing 
their  countryman  cut  down  before  their  eyes,  crossed  over  the 
stream  to  avenge  his  death;  more  straggled  over,  one  by  one, 
and  in  the  end  the  whole  detachment  passed  to  the  Roman 
side,  and  closely  engaged  the  outpost. 

In  aid  of  these  the  advanced  guard  of  the  camp    poured 


232  LUCIUS   ^MILIUS   PAULLUS. 

down,  and  in  a  few  minut«s  the  action  became  so  close  and  de- 
termined, that  the  legionaries  flew  to  arms,  with  such  ardor  and 
alacrity,  clashing  their  weapons,  and  demanding  to  be  led  down 
to  battle,  that  JEmilius,  called  from  his  tent  by  the  tnmult,  and 
seeing  that  the  conditions  of  the  haruspices  were  accomplished, 
since  the  enemy  had  advanced  to  the  attack,  did  not  judge  it 
expedient  to  restrain  any  farther  the  fierce  spirit  of  the  soldiery. 

He  led  them  forth,  therefore,  from  the  camp,  without  delay, 
and  proceeded  to  form  them,  as  usual,  on  the  southern  verge  of 
the  little  plain  beyond  which  the  low  broken  hills  rose  in  the 
direction  of  the  walls  of  Pydna,  in  sunny  slopes  with  shadowy 
hollows  intervening,  beautifully  checkered  with  corn-fields  and 
luxuriant  woodlands.  In  the  bottom,  on  either  side  the  little 
river,  the  ground  was  open  and  unencumbered,  covered  with 
short  greensward,  sloping  down  eastwardly  to  the  shore,  where 
it  is  bordered  by  a  narrow  strip  of  yellow  sand,  on  which  break 
in  small  sparkling  ripples  the  tideless  waves  of  the  blue  JEgean. 

No  lovelier  landscape  is  to  be  seen  in  the  lovely  land  of 
Hellas  ;  no  more  convenient  field  for  the  shock  of  armies,  and 
on  it  was  speedily  to  be  decided  the  fate  of  that  mighty  Mace- 
donian Empire,  which  had  endured  now  nearly  five  centuries 
since  its  first  rise  to  power  under  the  reign  of  Philip  the  First, 
surnamed  of  Macedon,  the  conqueror  of  "that  dishonest  victo- 
ry at  Chseroneia,  fatal  to  liberty,  which  had  subdued  all  Asia 
by  the  uninterrupted  victories  of  Alexander,  and  become  the 
mistress  of  one  half  the  world,  and  which  was  now  to  fall,  as 
if  reluctant  to  adorn  the  hands  of  the  first  driveller  and 
dastard  who  had  disgraced  her  glorious  dynasty. 

Before  advancing,  however,  he  directed  Scipio  Nasica  to  ride 
out  and  report  how  things  were  going  with  the  combatants 
already  engaged,  and  what  was  the  aspect  of  the  camp  of 
Perseus ;  while  he  himself,  after  reviewing  his  line  of  battle,  rode 
through  the  ranks  from  century  to  century,  encouraging  the 


MACEDONIAN    ARMY.  233 

men,  and  calling  upon  them,  since  the  battle  was  of  their  own 
seeking,  so  to  carry  it  out  that  the  end  might  cast  no  disgrace 
on  the  commencement. 

In  the  mean  time  Scipio  returned  upon  the  gallop,  announcing 
that  the  whole  arm}^  of  Perseus  was  arrayed  and  in  motion,  and 
that  the  phalanx  itself  was  formed  and  at  hand. 

Then  was  to  be  seen  a  sight  splendid  almost  beyond  concep- 
tion or  example  ;  a  mighty  army,  full  of  puissant  youths  ;  disci- 
plined to  the  perfection  of  the  improved  Greek  tactic,  introduced 
and  completed  at  Chaeroneia,  the  Granicus,  Issus,  and  Arbela ; 
and  resplendent  with  all  that  barbaric  pomp,  and  semi-oriental 
luxury,  the  first  of  which  had  ever  been  effected  by  the  Mace- 
donian kings,  and  the  second  rendered  indigenous  since  the 
days  of  Alexander. 

In  *  the  advance  were  the  Thracians,  tall  and  robust  of  form, 
keen-eyed  and  stern  of  feature,  their  left  arms  covered  with 
great  round  shields,  wondrously  white  and  polished.  They 
wore  black  scarfs  floating  over  both  shoulders,  and  brandished 
in  their  right  hands  huge  pikes  of  enormous  weight,  with  long 
swordlike  heads.  After  the  Thracians  came  the  mercenary 
auxiliars,  among  whom  the  Pseonians,  diversely  clad,  and  armed 
after  the  fashion  of  their  divers  nations. 

To  these  succeeded  that  picked  and  splendid  corps  of  the  Mace- 
donians proper,  the  royal  body-guard,  known  as  the  phalanx  of 
Leucaspides,  men  equally  eminent  for  their  strength  and  valor, 
the  elite  of  the  nation,  gleaming  in  gilded  armor  and  conspicu- 
ous for  their  crimson  cassocks.  These  held  the  centre  as  their 
post  of  right,  and  were  followed  close  by  the  remainder  of  the 
phalanx,  who  formed  the  right  wing  in  line  of  battle,  and  were 
called  Chalcaspides,  from  their  burnished  shields  of  brass.  In 
addition  to  these  two  phalanxes,  which  formed  the  great  strength 
of  the  Macedonian  armies,  there  were  yet  other  Macedonians^ 
*  Liyy,  Epitome  xliv.  40. 


234  LUCIUS   ^MILIUS    PAULLUS. 

carrying  round  targes  and  sarissse,  like  the  soldiers  of  the  plia* 
lanx,  but  in  other  respects  more  lightly  accoutred,  who  in  action 
were  divided  on  the  two  wings,  but  were  now  conspicuously  and 
hardily  advanced  before  the  whole. 

The  whole  plain  seemed  on  fire  with  the  blaze  of  their  armor, 
as  they  rose  into  the  sunlight  emerging  from  the  channel  of  the 
stream,  and  the  neighboring  hills  re-echoed  their  shouts,  as  they 
cheered  each  other  emulously  to  the  fray. 

With  such  daring  and  alacrity  did  this  magnificent  soldiery 
advance,  and  so  rapid  was  their  step,  that  the  fii-st  men  slain 
fell  within  two  hundred  paces  of  the  Roman  lines. 

To  reconnoitre  their  advance,  ^milius  rode  out  in  person, 
and  as  he  saw  that  splendid  column  wheel  up  into  hue  of  battle 
by  the  right,  all  the  Macedonians,  both  of  the  phalanx  and  the 
targeteei*s,  bringing  down  their  shields  and  bucklers  from  their 
left  shoulders,  and  sloping  their  long  sarissse  to  the  charge,  like 
a  field  of  levelled  grain,  at  once,  at  a  single  word  and  a  single 
motion,  he  was  stricken  at  the  moment  not  with  wonder  only,  but 
with  awe,  as  looking  upon  the  most  terrible  spectacle  which  he 
ever  beheld  ;  and  of  this  he  was  wont  to  discourse  often  and 
openly  in  after  days. 

At  the  time,  however,  he  dissembled  his  anxiety  beneath  a 
gay  and  cheerful  countenance,  and  a  front  of  confidence,  inspect- 
ing the  array  of  his  legions,  unarmed  either  of  casque  or  corslet, 
as  if  regarding  the  affair  of  little  moment. 

But  the  King  of  the  Macedonians,"  says  Plutarch,*  quoting 
Polybius,  "ere  the  battle  was  well  began,  rode  away  terror- 
stricken  to  the  city,  under  the  pretext  of  sacrificing  to  Hercules, 
who  receives  not  dastardly  sacrifice  from  dastards,  nor  grants 
unlawful  boons.  For  it  is  unlawful  that  he  who  shoots  not 
should  hit  the  mark  ;  that  he  who  stands  not  should  conquer  ; 
that  he  who  is  wholly  fruitless   should   prevail ;   or  he  who  is 

*  Plut.  Vit.  JEmil  Paul.  xix. 


DEFEA.T    OF   THE    PELIGNIAN    COHORTS.  235 

utterly  a  coward,  prosper."  But  the  god  was  present  f  o  the 
prayers  of  JEmilius  Paullus,  for  he  prayed  for  atreugth  in  the 
battle,  and  to  conquer  victory  with  the  spear,  and  fighting  him- 
self, called  upon  the  god  to  be  his  ally." 

In  the  mean  time,  the  Peligni  were  closely  engaged  with  the 
Macedonian  targeteers ;  and,  their  missiles  exhausted,  having 
only  short  swords  to  oppose  to  the  terrible  sixteen  foot  sarissa3, 
they  were  unable  to  break  into  their  closely  compacted  order. 
Whereupon  Salius,  their  chief,  snatching  their  banner  from  the 
ensign-bearer,  cast  it  into  the  middle  ranks  of  the  enemies. 
Thereupon  a  deadly  struggle  ensued,  the  Peligni  straining  every 
nerve  to  recover,  and  the  targeteers  to  retain  the  colors ;  the 
former  hewing  and  hacking  with  their  sword-blades  at  the  long 
pikes  of  the  Macedonians,  striving  to  dash  them  aside  with  the 
bosses  of  their  bucklers,  or  even  to  wrest  them  from  their  grasp 
with  their  bare  hands  ;  the  latter  charging  their  spears  with 
right  and  left,  and  rushing  forward  with  such  blind  and  head- 
long fury,  as  to  drive  their  points  through  shield  and  breast- 
plate, and  even  to  hurl  the  men  over  iheir  heads,  transfixed 
from  side  to  side. 

The  Peligni  having  their  front  ranks  thus  utterly  destroyed, 
and  many  in  the  rear  of  these  wounded  and  cut  to  pieces, 
began  to  retire  slowly,  as  men  completely  overpowered,  although 
not  yet  utterly  in  flight,  toward  the  mountain  on  their  left, 
called  Olocrus  by  the  natives. 

At  this  time,  it  appeared  to^milius  that  all  was  lost;  and, 
seeing  his  troops  giving  way  at  one  point  manifestly,  and  at  all 
others  hesitating,  or  at  best  advancing  feebly  and  timidly  against 
the  iron  hedge  of  spears,  which  the  unbroken  phalanx  presented, 
as  it  swept  on  in  accurate  array  over  the  corpse-encumbered 
plain,  he  gave  way  to  his  wrath  and  indignation,  and  rent  his 
general's  cassock,  in  the  extremity  of  his  ire.  But,  whether  dis- 
ordered by  their  success  at  some  points,  which  caused  sections  of 


236  LUCIUS    ^MILTUB    I'AULLUS. 

the  front  to  outstrip  the  others,  or  by  the  inequalities  of  the 
ground,  which  prevented  them  all  from  keeping  accurately 
dressed  along  a  line  of  such  extraordinary  length,  they  were,  ere 
long,  necessarily  dissevered,  intervals  of  greater  or  less  magni- 
tude beginning  to  show  themselves  in  the  face  of  their  late  com- 
-.pact  array. 

Even  in  the  imminent  danger  of  defeat,  when  to  a  less  acute 
and  cool  observer  all  must  need  have  appeared  desperate,  the 
marking  glance  of  JEmilius  Paullus  detected,  in  an  instant,  the 
fatal  gap  in  the  array  of  Perseus,  as  did  that  of  Wellington  the 
no  less  fatal  break  in  Marmont's  columns  at  Talavera ;  and  his 
quick  decision  suddenly  laying  hold  of  the  weak  point — which 
is,  by  the  way,  the  radical  and  inseparable  defect  of  the  phalanx 
— he  at  once  resumed  the  offensive  at  all  points,  and'  in  an  in- 
credibly short  time,  by  the  combined  effect  of  address,  audacity, 
and  good  fortune,  converted  what  was  already  all  but  a  defeat 
into  an  unexampled  victory. 

Resolving  that  it  must  be  his  aim  to  break  up  that  one  great 
inexpugnable  battalion  into  fragments,  and  to  reduce  the  single 
general  action  into  a  number  of  independent  encounters,  where- 
in the  peculiar  tactic  and  favorite  weapons  of  the  Romans  must 
secure  the  defeat  of  the  enemy,  he  called  all  his  staff  and 
lieutenants  about  him,  and  instructed  them  to  direct  all  their 
efforts  to  the  penetration  of  every  gap  or  interval,  great  or  small, 
in  the  front  of  the  phalanx,  and  for  that  end  to  lead  a  succession 
of  wedge-like  attacks  against  all  the  disordered  or  weakened 
places,  which  they  might  detect  in  the  face  of  the  line.  When 
he  had  issued  these  orders,  and  seen  that  they  were  passed 
through  all  his  army,  he  took  command  in  person  of  one  of  the 
Roman  legions,  and  led  it  himself  into  action,  plunging  into  the 
interval  between  the  targeteers,  who  had  pressed  forward  too 
far  in  pui-suit  of  the  defeated  Peligni,  and  the  Chalcaspides,  who 
formed  the  enemy's  right.     Lucius  Albinus,  himself  a  consular. 


SUCCESS    OF    THE    MANCEUVRE.  23*? 

carried  the  second  Roman  legion  gallantly  into  the  Leucaspides, 
or  royal  lifeguard,  of  the  centre,  and  held  them  nobly  at  bay  ; 
while  the  elephants  and  the  Latin  allies  were  launched  against 
the  left  of  Perseus,  which  was  still  engaged  in  action  on  the 
river. 

At  this  point,  the  first  advantage  was  gained  by  the  Romans  ;• 
for  although  the  elephants  were,  as  usual,  a  name  only,  without 
utility,  the  allies  of  the  Latin  name  followed  up  their  attack  by 
so  bold  a  charge  on  the  Thracians  of  the  left,  that  these  soon 
broke  and  turned  to  flight.  The  onset  of  the  second  legion  next 
broke  the  Leucaspides,  of  the  centre. 

"  Nor,"  says  Livy,*  "  was  there  any  more  evident  cause  for 
this  victory,  than  this — that  the  number  of  independent  attacks 
on  various  points  along  the  front  of  the  phalanx,  the  power  of 
which  is  immense  >nd  the  array  inexpugnable,  so  long  as  it 
preserves  its  compact  order,  bristling  with  levelled  pikes,  first 
caused  it  to  bend  and  waver  to  and  fro,  and  then  broke  it  into 
pieces. 

"  For,  if  it  is  once,  compelled  to  wheel  in  sections,  it  becomes 
immediately  disordered  by  the  act  of  bringing  about  its  ponder- 
ous and  unwieldly  spears ;  and,  if  assaulted  on  the  flanks  or  in 
the  rear,  its  destruction  is  certain. 

"  Thus  it  was,  that  the  Romans  charging  by  alternate  pelotons, 
and  retiring  the  intermediate  cohorts,  shook  their  formation  and 
ultimately  penetrated  the  phalanx  at  many  points ;  whereas,  if 
they  had  joined  battle  equally  along  the  whole  front,  they 
would  have  bhndly  impaled  themselves  upon  the  pikes,  and 
have  gone  down  hke  the  Peligni,  unable  to  endure  the  concen 
trated  weight  of  the  Macedonic  onset." 

At  the  same  time,    the  charge  of  the  Consul  himself,  who, 
though  above  sixty  years  of  age,  fought  hand  to  hand  in  the 
van  like  a  boy,  performing  at  onci^  the  duties  of  a  general  and 
*  Livy,  xliv.  41. 


238  LUCIUS   iEMILIUS   PAULLUS. 

a  private  soldier,  pierced  the  Chalcaspides  on  Perseus'  right  in 
fifty  places  ;  so  that  the  whole  army  was  soon  weltering  like  a 
huge  stranded  monster  unable  to  make  any  adequate  resistance 
to  its  innumerable  foes,  who  pierced  and  hewed  it  to  pieces, 
front,  flanks,  and  rear,  at  the  same  moment. 

For  when  the  legionaries  had  once  got  within  the  points  of 
the  tremendous  sarissse,  the  Macedonians,  though  they  fought 
stubbornly,  in  knots  or  singly,  to  the  last,  could  make  no  im- 
pression on  the  long  stout  bucklers  of  the  Koman  soldiers  with 
their  feeble  daggers,  even  as  their  own  light  targets,  could  offer 
no  resistance  to  the  sweeping  blows  and  impetuous  thrusts  of 
the  Latin  broadsword. 

At  length  such  as  could  escape  from  the  tumult,  casting  away 
their  arms,  rushed  into  the  sea,  and  stretching  suppliant  arms 
toward  the  mariners  of  Octavius'  squadron,  which  was  within 
hail  of  the  shore,  implored  their  lives,  and  begged  for  quarter. 

These  miserable  men,  as  they  saw  the  pinnaces  of  the  fleet 
put  out  and  row  toward  them,  fancying  that  their  mission  was 
to  save,  swam  on  to  meet  them,  but  found  too  late  that  there 
was  no  mercy  to  be  hoped  at  the  hands  of  Romans.  They  were 
ruthlessly  butchered,  almost  to  a  man,  unable  to  resist  or 
escape  ;  for  the  waves  were  less  deaf  to  their  entreaties  than  the 
soldiers  of  the  fleet ;  and  the  few  who  mad6  their  way  back,  by 
dint  of  strong  swimming,  to  the  shore^  were,  if  it  be  possible, 
more  barbarously  entreated  than  their  comrades  ;  for,  as  they 
emerged  from  the  surf,  the  elephants,  compelled  by  their  dri- 
vers, seized  them  with  their  trunks  and  dashed  them  to  pieces 
against  the  ground,  or  trampled  them  into  the  sand  under  their 
colossal  feet. 

[N^ever  was  so  complete  a  victory,  so  horrible  a  carnage.  Of 
the  Macedonians  twenty  thousand  were  killed  outright,  in  the 
action  ;  six  thousand,  who  had  found  refuge  in  Pydna,  were 


CARNAGE    AND    PURSUIT.  239 

made  prisoners ;  and  about  five  thousand  others  were  captured 
during  the  flight. 

or  the  victoi-s,  there  fell  not  above  a  hundred ;  and  these 
mostly  Pelignians,  who  were  stricken  down  in  the  first  onslaught ; 
and  a  few  more  only  were  wounded. 

The  battle  lasted  only  from  the  ninth  hour,  about  half-past 
two  o'clock  modern  time,  to  the  tenth,  or  a  little  before  four, 
so  rapid  was  the  destruction,  when  the  phalanx  was  once  dis- 
ordered ;  and,  had  it  commenced  at  an  earlier  hour,  few,  if  any, 
of  the  Macedonians  would  have  escaped  ;  for  the  closing  in  of 
evening,  and  their  ignorance  of  the  country  prevented  the  pur-, 
suit  from  being  urged  by  the  Romans  with  their  usual  activity. 

The  engagement  lay  entirely  between  the  infantry  of  the  two 
armies ;  for  the  dastard  Perseus  fled,  as  we  have  seen,  at  the  first 
onset,  with  all  the  splendid  squadrons  of  the  sacred  horse, 
which,  had  they  charged  the  legions  home,  while  the  Pehgni 
were  in  confusion,  and  the  phalanx  was  advancing  in  full  career 
unbroken,  might  well  have  decided  the  fortune  of  the  day ;  and 
would,  at  least,  when  victory  had  declared  against  them,  have 
covered  the  retreat  of  the  phalanx,  and  put  a  stop  to  the 
hideous  slaughter. 

The  R-oman  cavalry,  it  seems,  was  never  brought  into  action 
until  the  affair  was  over ;  when  they  assisted  in  cutting  up  the 
remnants  of  the  phalanx,  which,  by  its  desperate  and  sustained 
resistance,  nobly  supported  its  time-honored  renown,  and  ena- 
bled the  targeteers  of  the  right  wing,  and  Cotys,  with  his 
Odrysian  horse,  to  get  off"  unmolested. 

Perseus,  who  had  galloped  off  with  all  his  horse  and  his  regal 
train,  by  the  military  road  into  the  Pierian  wood,  turned  aside 
from  the  direct  way  with  a  mere  handful  of  men  at  night-fall, 
the  remainder  of  his  cavalry  dispersing  themselves  among  the 
variolas  cities,  with  the  exception  of  a  few,  who  arrived  at  Pella 
befpie  him. 


240  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS   PAULLUS. 

In  the  dead  of  night,  worn  out,  desperate,  and  deserted  by 
nearly  all  his  friends,  he  reached  the  royal  residence,  and  there 
such  of  his  people  as  had  escaped  the  carnage  refused  to  join 
him,  so  much  did  they  dread  his  tyranny  and  the  cruelty  of  his 
disposition,  now  exaggerated  beyond  all  endurance  by  the  con- 
sciousness of  his  misconduct  in  the  action,  and  the  utter  ruin, 
which  was  its  consequence,  Euctus  only  and  Eudoeus,  with  the 
royal  children,  were  ready  to  receive  him  ;  and  both  of  these 
servitors,  it  is  said,  he  slew  with  his  own  dagger,  for  having  pre- 
sumed to  address  and  counsel  him  with  more  freedom  of  speech 
than  he  deemed  consistent  even  with  his  fallen  fortunes. 

After  this,  Evander,  the  Cretan,  Neo,  the  Boeotian,  and 
Archidamus,  the  jEtohan,  alone  adhered  to  him,  with  whom 
and  the  Cretan  mercenaries,  five  hundred  in  number,  who  re- 
mained faithful  to  him,  from  no  favor  or  affection — but  simply 
on  account  of  the  gold  he  carried  with  him,  he  set  forth  from 
Vella  in  the  fourth  watch  of  the  night,  which  commenced,  at 
this  season  of  the  year,  at  about  half-past  two,  a.m.,  and  pursued 
his  way  northward,  to  the  Axius,  or  Vardhari ;  earnestly  desiring 
to  cross  it  before  day,  as  he  seems  to  have  flattered  himself  that 
it  would  put  a  stop  to  the  pursuit  of  the  Romans. 

Thence  he  made  the  best  of  his  way  to  Araphipolis,  and 
thereafter  to  Galepsus,  over  against  the  island  of  Thasos  at  the 
head  of  the  JEgean  sea ;  where  having  recovered  somewhat 
from  his  immediate  terror,  and  relapsed  into  his  wonted  disease 
of  avarice,  he  mourned  bitterly  with  tears  over  the  loss  of  some 
gold  plate  which  had  belonged  to  Alexander  the  Great,  and  had 
been  lost  or  plundered  by  the  Cretans  in  their  flight ;  and  be- 
sought a  loan  of  his  friends  with  abject  entreaties.  Having 
succeeded  in  obtaining  from  some  of  these  the  sum  of, thirty 
talents,  which  ultimately  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Romans,  he 
took  ship  for  the  island  of  Samothrace,  and  there  threw  himself 


SCIPIO   MISSING.  241 

into  sanctuary  in  the  Temple  of  Castor   and  Pollux,  the 
Dyoscyri. 

In  the  mean  time  the  Roman  army,  which  had  pursued  the 
flying  Macedonians  for  nearly  fifteen  miles  with  such  slaughter 
that,  when  they  crossed  the  river  Leucus  on  the  following  day,  it 
still  flowed  red  with  the  blood  of  the  slain,  returned  late  in  the 
evening  to  the  camp  on  the  Enipeus.  And  as  the  leaders  re- 
turned, one  by  one,  the  camp  followers  met  them  with  loud  ^ 
shouts  of  joy,  carrying  torches  in  their  hands,  and  escorted  them 
in  triumph  to  their  tents,  which  were  blazing  with  illumina- 
tion and  decorated  with  ivy  boughs  and  bay  wreaths  from 
Olympus. 

But  while  all  others  were  intoxicated  with  the  joy  of  triumph, 
great  affliction  and  sorrow  fell  upon  the  consul,  for  the  younger 
of  his  two  sons,  whom  he  loved  the  most,  and  of  whom  he 
anticipated  the  highest  things,  was  missing. 

He  was  a  youth  of  the  noblest  spirit  and  promise,  and  had 
been  observed  on  that  day,  though  little  more  than  a  boy  in 
years,  conducting  himself  with  the  utmost  credit,  and  fighting 
more  like  a  veteran  than  a  tyro. 

When  the  news  went  abroad  among  the  soldiers  that  he  was 
missing,  they  leaped  up  from  their  suppers,  and,  seizing  fire- 
brands, rushed  to  and  fro  tumultuously,  and  in  consternation, 
some  to  the  pavilion  of  JEmilus,  and  yet  more  to  the  spot 
where  the  dead  laid  heaped  the  thickest,  without  the  palisade. 
And  all  was  confusion  throughout  the  camp,  and  the  plain  was 
alive  with  moving  lights,  and  voices  of  men,  shouting  Scipiol 
Scipiol  for  he  was  greatly  admired,  and  beloved  of  the  army 
beyond  any  other  officer. 

Yery  late,  however,  when  he  was  already  despaired  of,  he 
returned  from  the  pursuit  with  two  or  three  companions,  who 
had  followed  it  the  farthest,  reeking  with  the  blood  of  the  enemy ; 
11 


242  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS    PAULLUS. 

for  he  had  been  carried   away,  hke  a  young  hound  of  noble 
blood,  by  the  unmixed  love  of  the  chase  and  rapture  of  battle. 

This  is  he,  who  won  in  after  times  the  title  of  the  Second 
Africanus,  the  conqueror  of  Numantia  and  destroyer  of  Car- 
thage, by  far  the  greatest  Roman  of  his  day,  and  foremost  both 
in  prowess  and  renown.  Him,  then,  the  soldiery  received  with 
mighty  acclamations,  and  conducted  in  triumph  to  the  Consul, 
who,  Fate  and  Fortune  deferring  for  a  while  the  stern  retribution 
they  were  about,  ere  long,  to  exact  for  his  present  glory,  was 
permitted  to  enjoy  the  pleasure  of  the  day,  unmixed  with  any- 
thing of  sorrow  or  regret. 

On  the  day  following  the  battle,  having  given  the  spoils  of 
the  slain  to  the  infantry  of  his  army,  and  permitted  his  cavalry 
to  plunder  the  neighboring  country,  provided  they  should  not 
absent  themselves  from  the  camp  above  two  nights,  the  Consul  sent 
his  son  Quintus  Fabius  Maximus,  Lucius  Leniulus,  and  Quintu* 
Metellus,  to  Rome,  with  despatches  and  tidings  of  the  victory, 
and  thereafter  marching  leisurely  along  the  sea-shore,  fixed  his 
camp  at  Pydna,  where  he  received  the  surrender  of  Hippias, 
Medon  and  Pantauchus,  the  principal  friends  of  the  king,  who 
came  to  his  head-quartei*s  for  the  purpose  of  giving  up  them- 
selves, with  the  cities  of  Bersea,  Thessalonica,  and  Pella,  to  his 
discretion. 

Within  two  days,  nearly  the  whole  of  Macedonia  had  sur- 
rendered unconditionally;  for  the  people,  though  of  a  most 
loyal  nature,  and  singularly  attached  to  their  kings,  had  suffered 
so  much  that  they  could  endure  no  more  in  their  behalf,  and 
had,  moreover,  lost  all  confidence  in  Perseus  himself,  and  were 
disgusted  alike  with  his  parsimony,  his  imbecility,  and  his  want 
of  courage. 

Advancing  from  Pydna,  whence,  ignorant  of  the  King's 
flight,  he  had  sent  Scipio  with  an  advanced  guard  of  horse  and 
foot  to  Amphipolis,  with  instructions  to  devastate  all  Sintice,  or 


CAPTURE    OF    PERSEUS.  243 

the  interior  of  Thrace,  toward  the  Hgemus  mountains,  and  to 
make  head  against  any  farther  movements  of  Perseus,  he 
reached  Pel  la  in  two  days'  march,  where  he  tarried  several  days, 
receiving  embassies  of  congratulation  from  all  parts  of  the 
country,  but  above  all  from  Thessaly.  Thence,  hearing  of  the 
King's  flight  to  Samothrace,  he  marched  in  four  days  to  Am- 
phipolis,  where  the  whole  population  came  out  to  receive  and 
hail  him,  not  as  subjects  deprived  of  a  good  and  just  king,  but 
as  men  liberated  from  the  servitude  of  an  impotent  and  im- 
becile tyrant ;  to  such  a  degree  of  abasement  had  declined  the 
royal  house  of  Philip  and  Alexander. 

It  is  said  that,  while  offering  sacrifice  in  Amphipolis,  fire  de- 
scended manifest  from  heaven,  and  consumed  the  victim  on  the 
altar,  an  omen  so  sublime  and  noble,  that  the  repute  of  JErailius 
stood  as  high  for  sanctity  and  favor  with  the  gods,  as  his  renown 
in  war  and  military  glory.  Nevertheless,  he  made  no  stay,  nor 
slept  upon  his  late  won  laurels  ;  but,  hurrying  in  pursuit  ot 
Pei-seus,  and  anxious  to  visit  and  overawe  all  the  regions  which 
had  of  late  been  under  that  King's  control,  he  carried  his  arms 
across  the  Strymon,  into  the  Odomantice,  and  established  his 
quarters  at  Sirae. 

Within  a  few  days  the  fleet  of  the  praetor  Octavius  arrived  at 
Samothrace ;  and,  after  a  vain  attempt  to  escape  on  ship-board, 
in  which  he  was  frustrated  by  the  treachery  of  his  confidant, 
Oroandes,  the  unhappy  monarch  suri'endered  himself,  with  his 
eldest  son,  Philip,  his  other  children  having  previously  fallen 
into  the  power  of  the  Romans,  at  discretion.  He  was  imme- 
diately conduted  on  shipboard,  and  conveyed,  together  with  his 
children  and  the  treasure  to  which  he  had  postponed  his  honor, 
his  empire,  and — as  it  appeared,  in  the  end — his  life,  in  the 
praetor's  ship  to  Amphipolis. 

From  that  port,  tidings  were  immediately  forwarded  to  tht? 
Consul  at  his  head-quarters,  informing  him  of  the  capture  oi 


244  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS   PAULLUS. 

Perseus  and  the  absolute  termination  of  the  war,  which,  regard- 
ing it  in  the  light  of  a  second  victory,  he  celebrated  by  magnificent 
sacrifices,  while  he  sent  Quintus  ^lius  Tubero,  his  son-in-law, 
and  one  of  his  principal  lieutenants,  to  escort  the  fallen  monarch 
to  his  presence. 

It  is  to  the  credit  of  -^miUus  Paullus,  that,  being  the  oflScer 
of  a  nation  especially  cruel  to  its  conquered  enemies,  and  in  an 
age  when  mercy,  much  less  courtesy,  to  captives  was  unknown, 
he  treated  Perseus  with  unusual  tenderness  and  consideration, 
inviting  him  to  his  own  table,  and  holding  him  in  free  ward, 
under  the  charge  of  Quintus  jEhus,  until  such  time  as  the  will 
of  the  senate  should  be  ascertained  concerning  him. 

With  this  event  the  mihtary  career  of  Lucius  JEraihus  Paul- 
lus, as,  in  fact,  the  history  of  Macedonia,  as  an  independent 
nation,  closes. 

The  former,  though  he  was  continued  for  another  year  in  his 
command,  in  order  to  complete  the  subjugation  and  pacification 
of  Macedonia,  lllyria,  and  their  dependencies,  being  already 
above  sixty  yeai*s  of  age^  and  satisfied  as  well  with  the  glory  he 
had  acquired,  as  with  the  fatigues,  the  perils,  and  the  fierce  ex- 
citement of  the  dread  game  of  war,  never  again  held,  or  sought, 
any  military  command. 

During  the  ensuing  year  he  reduced  many  of  the  smaller  de- 
pendencies, and  punished  several  of  the  more  contumacious 
allies  of  Perseus,  and  reduced  Macedonia,  which  was  divided 
into  four  several  departments,  between  which  no  intercourse  of 
commerce,  or  right  of  intermarriage  was  permitted,  to  the  con- 
dition of  a  Roman  province.  This  was  effected,  however,  so 
skilfully,  as  it  was  the  wont  of  the  Roman  government  to  do, 
that  the  people,  instead  of  regarding  the  loss  of  their  liberties 
and  national  independence  as  a  hardship,  were  led  to  esteem  it 
a  deliverance  from  the  autocracy  of  their  native  princes. 

Re-organized  into  republics ;  permitted  to  legislate,  and  exe- 


TREACHERY   TO    EPIRUS.  245 

cute  their  own  laws,  for  themselves ;  released  from  all  tribute  or 
taxation,  except  for  their  own  local  purposes ;  and  deprived  of 
no  privilege  except  that  of  working  the  gold  and  silver  mines, 
which  became  state  property  of  Rome,  they  were,  indeed,  sub- 
ject to  no  hardship  or  exaction,  but  exempt  from  many  evils 
which  they  had  experienced  before.  They  were,  indeed — ex- 
cept for  that  abstract  wrong,  the  deprivation  of  distinct  and 
independent  nationality,  which  is,  in  truth,  only  a  wrong  exactly 
proportioned  to  the  degree  in  which  the  principle  of  liberty  is 
valued  and  understood  by  any  people — it  is  probable,  physi- 
cally, in  a  better  condition,  under  the  protection  of  the  all 
powerful  republic,  than  under  the  capricious  tyranny  of  their 
natural  rulers. 

The  last  act  of  ^milius  Paullus  is  one  to  be  regretted.  It  is 
in  no  wise  to  his  honor,  though  it  originated  not  with  himself, 
but  was  enjoined  on  him  by  the  direct  mandate  of  the  senate, 
which  he  could  scarcely  have  avoided  without  incurring  the 
charge  of  treason. 

Seventy  towns  of  Epirus  were  treacherously  occupied,  under 
peaceful  and  friendly  pretexts,  and  during  the  period  of  an  un- 
denounced armistice ;  when  they  were  cruelly  and  insatiably 
plundered,  and  no  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  of 
their  miserable  inhabitants  sold  into  hopeless  and  perpetual  slavery. 

Of  so  dark  actions,  in  those  days,  were  even  the  greatest,  and, 
as  they  held  themselves,  most  magnanimous  of  nations  capable  ; 
and  so  httle  were  the  commonest  and  most  obvious  laws  of 
national  morality  and  justice  understood  or  regarded. 

On  his  return  to  Rome,  -^milius  was,  for  some  time,  denied 
the  honor  of  a  triumph,  owing  to  the  factiousness  of  his  own 
army,  which  had  been  disappointed  in  the  amount  of  spoils 
divided  among  them,  and  to  the  insolent  seditiousness  of  some 
of  the  tribunes  of  the  people. 

But  his  deserts  were  too  conspicuous,  his  ability  too  appa- 


246  Lucicrs  ^milius  paullus. 

rent,  and  the  services  rendered  to  the  state  too  glorious  to  bo 
overlooked ;  and  it  was  not  to  the  Senate  only,  or  to  the  aris- 
tocratic party,  of  vi^hich  he  was  one  of  the  oldest  and  most 
prominent  personages,  but  to  the  generally  consentient  voice  of 
the  people,  indignant  at  the  wrong  done  to  their  ablest  general, 
that  he  owed  the  enforcement  of  his  rights. 

The  envy  and  malevolence  of  his  enemies  thus  overcome, 
Paullus  JEmilius  triumphed  for  three  successive  days — on  the 
28th,  29th  and  30th  of  December,  B.C.  167,  with  unusual 
glory  and  magnificence  ;  the  greatest  monarch  of  the  most  glori- 
ous and  renowned  empire  of  the  known  world  being  led,  with 
all  his  family,  a  sad  procession,  at  his  chariot  wheels,  followed 
by  such  a  pomp  of  military  arms  and  ensigns,  such  a  luxury  of 
statues,  pictures,  tapestry,  and  plate  of  gold  and  silver,  such 
a  treasure  in  coin  and  bullion  as  had  never  before,  in  the 
palmiest  days  of  Rome,  ascended  the  sacred  way  to  the  eternal 
capitol. 

Perseus,  it  is  said,  appealed  to  the  Consul's  clemency  to  spare 
him  the  humihation  of  being  haled  a  captive,  through  the  shout- 
ing populace,  at  the  wheels  of  his  triumphal  car. 

But  it  was  not  in  the  nature  of  a  Roman  to  comprehend  such 
a  plea,  or  to  feel  compassion  for  one  who  had  filled  so  splendid 
a  place,  next  to  the  immortal  gods,  yet  could  brook  to  endure 
such  an  abasement,  or  meanly  deprecate  that  disgrace  which  he 
could  so  readily,  and,  according  to  the  notions  of  the  time,  so 
nobly,  have  avoided  by  a  self-inflicted  death. 

For  such  a  prayer  he  could  feel  no  pity ;  for  such  a  suitor 
entertain  no  feeling  but  contempt,  mingled,  perhaps,  with  a  sort 
of  sense  of  personal  injury,  in  that  a  king,  whom  he  had  con- 
quered, should  lack  the  courage  or  the  pride  to  die,  at  least,  a 
man. 

The  stern  old  soldier  replied,  therefore,  only  by  a  short  sar- 
donic laugh.     "  That,"  he  said,  '*  which  he  asks  of  me,  has  been 


TRIUMPH    OF    PAULLUS.  247 

in  his  own  power,  and  in  his  own  hands,  from  the  beginning, 
and  is  so  yet.     Let  him  see  to  that." 

But  when  the  triumph  was  concluded,  and  Perseus  was 
thrown  into  that  horrible  dungeon,  the  Tullianum,  he  made 
interest  in  his  behalf,  and  procured  him  to  be  removed  to  Alba 
Fusentia,  where  he  was  held  in  durance,  at  least,  in  a  clean  and 
commodious  prison-house,  until  death  put  an  end  to  his  woes ; 
whether  by  heart-break,  as  some  say,  and  slow  natural  decline, 
or,  as  others  assert,  by  deprivation  of  sleep,  through  the  cruelty 
of  his  guards,  whom  it  irked  to  stand,  day  by  day,  and  night  by 
night,  on  duty  so  dull  and  distasteful. 

It  is  little  probable,  that,  had  he  insisted  with  the  Senate, 
^mihus  could  have  obtained  better  terms  for  his  vanquished 
enemy;  so  Uttle  was  it  the  practice,  or  in  accordance  with  the 
ideas  of  the  day,  to  spare  a  captive  leader,  who  usually,  after 
adorning  the  triumph  of  the  conqueror,  was  led  to  the  block, 
and  mercilessly  scourged  before  beheading,  as  if  he  had  been 
the  vilest  malefactor. 

This  honor  is  due,  especially  and  alone  to  Lucius  ^milius 
Paullus,  that  he  is  the  first  ahd  only  instance  on  record  of  a 
Roman  general,  who  sought  and  obtained  a  remission  of  the 
death  penalty  for  the  victim  of  a  Roman  triumph. 

The  cruelty  and  the  crime  were  in  the  age,  the  people,  and 
the  system.  The  mercy  and  the  grace  were  in  the  man.  To 
the  man,  then,  be  the  honor. 

The  family  of  Perseus  became  speedily  extinct,  all  save  one 
son,  who  earned  a  contemned  existence,  as  a  scribe  and  law- 
yer's drudge,  in  the  town  of  Alba,  where  his  father  died.  If  he 
left  issue  they  were  unknown,  and  low  as  the  fortunes  into 
which  had  declined  the  mighty  house  of  Alexander. 

Nor  was  ^milius  himself  not  an  example  of  that  instability 
of  human  things,  and  uncertainty  of  human  happiness,  which 
the  ancients  were  wont  to  ascribe  to  the  retributive  or  compen- 


248  LUCIUS    iEMILIUS   PAULLUS. 

sative  action  of  divine  justice,  if  not  to  the  direct  envy  which 
the  gods  themselves  were  beHeved  to  entertain  for  mortal 
glory. 

Of  four  sons,  the  two  eldest,  Quintus  Fabius  Maxiraus,  and 
Pubhus  Cornelius  Scipio,  each  surnamed  ^milianus  to  indicate 
the  house  from  which  he  sprang,  had  been  given  by  their 
■ather  in  adoption  to  two  of  the  noblest  families  in  Rome.  Two 
mly,  yet  boys,  but  of  rare  promise,  remained  at  home  to  bear 
che  name  and  sustain  the  honoi's  of  the  proud  ^milii. 

Of  these,  the  elder,  in  his  fourteenth  year,  died  on  the  fifth 
iay  before  his  father's  triumph  ;  the  second,  in  his  twelfth  year, 
>n  the  third  day  after  it,  leaving  the  house  vacant  of  heirs  male, 
and  the  race  at  an  end  after  the  present  generation. 

In  the  following  noble  and  touching  speech,  which  is  given 
learly  identically  by  both  Plutarch  and  Polybius,  and  which 
may  be  therefore  regarded  as,  in  the  main,  authentic,  so  striking 
an  epitome  is  contained  of  the  events  of  the  campaign,  as  well 
as  so  true  a  dehneation  of  a  Roman  general's  feelings  in  a  mo- 
ment so  blended  with  pride  and  exultation,  sorrow  and  disap- 
pointment, that  I  cannot,  I  think,  do  better,  than  lay  it  entire 
before  my  readers. 

"  Although,"  he  said,  "  I  believe  that  you  are  not  ignorant, 
0  Romans,  how  fortunately  I  have  administered  the  affairs  of 
the  Republic,  and  how,  within  these  few  days,  two  thunder- 
bolts have  struck  my  house,  since  on  one  day  my  triumph,  and 
on  another  the  funerals  of  my  two  sons  have  passed,  as  specta- 
cles, before  your  eyes ;  yet,  I  would  pray  you,  permit  me  to 
compare,  in  such  spirit  as  I  ought  to  bear,  my  own  private  for- 
tunes with  the  state  felicity,  in  which  you  bear  a  part.  On 
leaving  Italy,  my  fleet  set  sail  at  sunrise ;  at  three  in  the  after- 
noon of  the  same  day,  I  held  Corcyra  with  my  whole  squadron. 
On  the  fifth  day,  thereafter,  I  performed  sacrifices  of  lustration  at 
Delphi,  in  my  own  behalf,  and  in  that  of  my  army.   Thence,  on 


HIS    ORATION.  249 

the  fifth  day  I  reached  the  camp ;  and,  having  received  the 
command,  and  made  some  alterations  in  the  defective  discipline 
which  stood  greatly  in  the  way  of  success,  seeing  that  the 
enemy's  defences  were  inexpugnable,  and  that  the  King  could 
not  be  forced  to  deUver  battle,  I  turned  him  by  the  pass  of  Petra, 
compelled  him  to  fight,  and  conquered  him  in  a  pitched  battle. 
I  reduced  all  Macedonia  to  the  dominion  of  the  Roman  people ; 
and  that  war,  which  through  a  period  of  four  years,  four  consuls, 
my  predecessoi-s,  had  so  conducted,  as  to  leave  it  always  to  their 
successors  in  worse  condition  than  ihey  themselves  received  it,  I 
brought  to  a  close  in  fifteen  days.  Of  other  successes,  as  it 
were,  a  superabundance  followed.  All  the  dependencies  of 
Macedonia  surrendered ;  the  royal  treasures  fell  into  my  hands ; 
the  King  and  his  children,  as  if  the  gods  themselves  had  given 
them  up,  surrendered  from  the  Asylum  of  Samothrace.  So 
great,  indeed,  was  my  good  fortune,  that  T  began  to  suspect  its 
excess.  I  began  to  dread  the  perils  of  the  sea,  duiing  the  trans- 
portation of  the  royal  treasures,  and  my  victorious  army,  home- 
ward. When  all  arrived  in  Italy,  secure,  with  favorable  winds, 
and  I  had  nothing  more  for  which  to  pray,  I  hoped,  that,  since 
from  the  height  of  prosperity  the  tide  is  wont  to  ebb,  the 
change  of  fortunes  might  befall  my  family-,  not  the  Republic. 
And  I  now  trust  that  the  public  fortune  is  retrieved  from 
reverse  by  the  peculiar  calamity  of  my  own  house,  whose 
triumph,  as  if  in  very  scorn  of  human  chances,  has  been  inter- 
rupted by  the  death  of  my  two  sons.  And  when  I  and  Perseus 
are  set  up  as  two  examples,  the  noblest,  of  the  fate  of  mortals, 
he  who,  himself  a  captive,  has  seen  his  children  led  before  him 
captives,  yet  possesses  them  alive.  I,  who  triumphed  over  him, 
ascended  in  my  chariot  to  the  capitol  from  the  death-bed  of  one 
son,  returned  from  it  to  find  the  other  expiring  his  last  breath. 
Nor  from  so  fair  a  race  of  children  is  there  one  left  to  bear  the 
name  of  Lucius  JSmilius  Paullus      For  the  Cornehan  and  the 


250  LUCIUS    ^MILIUS    PAULLUS. 

Fabian  House  have  two,  granted  to  them  in  adoption,  out 
of  so  numerous  a  progeny  of  sons.  In  the  house  of  Paul- 
lus,  beside  himself,  there  is  no  survivor.  But  under  this 
calamity  of  my  own  family,  your  happiness  and  the  prospe- 
rity of  the  republic  are  my  consolation." 

With  this  noble  and  patriotic  speech  concludes  the  public 
career  of  this  good  man  and  admirable  soldier,  unless  we 
add  thereto  his  election  to  the  censorship,  in  the  year  of  the 
city  550,  B.C.  164  ;  the  most  dignified  and  almost  sacred 
office  to  which  a  Roman  magistrate  could  aspire,  but  one 
which  conferred  honor  on  the  holder,  as  an  evidence  of  his 
integrity  and  purity  of  life,  rather  than  influence  or  power. 

He  lived  four  years  after  his  elevation  to  this  dignity,  and 
died,  universally  regretted  by  his  countrymen,  as  one  of  the 
most  able,  honest,  and  virtuous  citizens  of  the  common- 
wealth, at  a  time  when  the  commonwealth  itself  was  degene- 
rating into  baseness  and  corruption. 

At  his  decease,  his  sons,  though  adopted  into  other  fami- 
lies, honored  his  memory  with  funeral  games  ;  and  it  is 
worthy  of  remark,  that  on  this  occasion  was  first  presented 
to  a  Roman  audience,  the  Adelphi,  the  last  comedy  of  the 
poet  Terence. 

So  passes  from  our  sight  Lucius  jEmilius  Paullus,  of  whom 
it  may  be  said  with  truth,  that  he  left  behind  him  but  one 
soldier,  and  that  his  own  son,  who  could  compare  with  him 
in  ability  or  success  ;  that  he  was  a  pure  man  in  an  impure 
age  ;  and  that  while  his  virtues  and  nobility  of  soul  were 
emphatically  his  own,  the  crimes  with  which  he  has  been 
unreasonably  and  unjustly  charged  by  a  modern  historian* 
of  repute,  were  those  of  his  country,  which  he  served,  as  it 
was  his  duty,  with  unquestioning  fidelity. 

*  Schmitz.  Hist.  Rom.  301. 


rv. 

CAIUS  MARIUS- 

OF  AEPINUM. 

^HIS   JUGURTHINE   WAR  ;     CIMBRIC    AND     TEUTONIC    CAMPAIGNS ; 
SOCIAL    WAR  ;    SEVEN    CONSULSHIPS    AND    CHARACTER. 

Quid  illo  cive  tulisset 
Natura  in  terns,  quid  Roma  beatius  unqnam, 
Si  circumducto  captivorum  agmine,  et  c«nni 
Bellorum  poinpa,  animam  exhalaseet  opimam 
Cum  de  Teutonico  vellet  desceudere  curru. 

JUVBNAL,  Sat  X. 

Concerning  this  very  remarkable  man,  notorious  equally  for 
his  virtues  and  his  vices,  both  of  which  were  extraordinary  and 
superlative,  Plutarch  observes  that,  in  common  with  Quintus 
Sertorius,  the  rebel  partizan  of  Spain,  and  Lucius  Mummius,  the 
conqueror  of  Corinth,  we  know  him  by  no  third  name  ;  but  he 
fails  to  indicate  the  nature  of  the  name  which  is  wanting,  or 
the  cause — ^identical  in  the  instances  cited — of  its  absence. 

Every  Roman  of  established  family,  whether  patrician  or 
plebeian,  had  three  names.  The  first,  or  praenomen,  correspond- 
ing to  our  Christian  name,  was  peculiar  to  the  individual,  and 
was  given  to  boys  either  on  their  attaining  the  age  of  puberty, 
at  fourteen,  or  on  assuming  the  toga  virilis  at  sixteen  yeai-s — 
the  nomen  was  that  of  the  house,  as  Cornelius,  Fabius,  ^milius, 


252  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

and  the  like,  almost  invariably  terminating  in  ius^  or  eius — the 
last  occasionally  contracted  into  cbus — and  indicating  the  com- 
mon origin  and  clanship  of  many  families — the  cognomen, 
which  stood  the  third,  was  that  of  the  family,  had  almost  any 
termination,  and  often  alluded  to  some  individual  peculiarity, 
whether  of  pei-son,  character,  temperament,  or  profession,  in  the 
first  founder,  such  as  Strabo,  the  squint-eyed ;  Asper,  the  harsh- 
tempered  ;  Cursor,  the  sv/ift  of  foot ;  Bubulcus,  the  herdsman  • 
and  many  others,  which  descended  to  posterity  apart  from  any 
personal  application. 

A  fourth  name,  or  agnomen,  was  occasionally  added,  but 
always  as  a  personal  distinction  commemorative  of  some  great 
deed,  some  state  service,  or  some  foreign  conquest,  as  Africanus  ' 
and  Asiaticus,  severally  applied  to  three  Scipios,  Numidicus  to 
Metellus,  and  Achaicus  to  Lucius  Mummius,  named  above,  as 
the  conqueror  of  Corinth.  This  fourth  name,  however,  in  all 
cases  died  with  the  first  owner,  and  in  no  respect  affected  his 
heirs  or  family. 

In  the  case  of  adoption  of  any  member  of  one  house  into  a 
family  of  another  house,  yet  another  modification  of  the  fourth, 
and  in  some  cases  a  fifth  name  was  brought  into  existence,  the 
person  adopted  receiving  in  lieu  of  his  own  praenomen,  nomen, 
and  cognomen,  those  of  his  adoptive  father,  with  suffix  of  his 
own  clan  name,  its  termination  altered  from  ius  into  ianus. 
For  example,  the  second  son  of  Lucius  u^milius  Paullus  was 
adopted  by  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio,  the  conqueror  of  Hannibal 
and  victor  of  Zama,  thence  called  Africanus.  The  youth  adopted 
was  thereafter  known  as  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio,  from  his 
adopted  father,  JEmilianus  from  his  natural  father's  house,  and 
afterward  Africanus  also,  not  that  he  inherited  the  agnomen  of 
his  adopted  father,  but  that  he  himself  won  the  same  honorary 
title,  as  the  destroyer  of  Carthage. 

To  a  person,  therefore,  intimately  acquainted  with  the  history 


MUNICIPAL    TOWNS.  253 

of  Rome,  the  names  of  any  man  are  as  clearly  distinctive  of  his 
genealogy,  of  the  circumstances  of  his  life,  and  of  his  rank  and 
honoi-s  in  the  state,  as  are  the  armorial  bearings  of  a  noble 
Norman  to  the  eyes  of  one  skilled  in  heraldry. 

All  Romans  of  respectable  origin,  as  I  have  above  stated, 
bore  three  names,  for  even  the  plebeians  had  houses,  some  of 
them  exceedingly  ancient,  and  so  distinguished  of  old  as  to  have 
become  in  some  sort,  although  plebeian,  noble. 

The  absence  of  the  nomen  proper,  or  clan  name,  indicated, 
therefore,  not  a  plebeian  only,  but  a  plebeian  without  connec- 
tions or  antecedents — one  of  the  lowest  class,  and,  so  far  as 
birth  and  hereditary  position  are  to  be  regarded,  the  most 
ignoble. 

Marius  was  born  at  Arpinum,  a  small  Latin  town  originally 
belonging  to  the  Volsci,  taken  by  the  Samnites,  retaken  by  the 
Romans,  and  ultimately  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  municipal 
town,  when  its  citizens  were  enrolled  in  the  Cornelian  tribe. 

The  possession  of  the  municipium  did  not  of  itself  render  all 
the  citizens  of  any  place  citizens  of  Rome,  in  the  fullest  sense  of 
the  word.  One  class  of  these  boroughs  retained  the  perfect 
administration  of  their  own  local  affairs,  their  own  legislative 
and  executive  magistracies ;  their  natives  sharing  many  privileges 
of  Roman  citizens,  but  not  possessing  the  power  of  voting  at 
Rome,  and  remaining  ineligible  to  office. 

A  second  class  was  completely  incorporated  with  the  Roman 
State,  and  possessed  every  right  of  the  Roman  citizen,  but  as 
such,  being  esteemed  part  and  parcel  of  Rome  itself,  lost  the 
internal  administration  of  their  own  affairs,  which  were  directed 
either  by  quatuorviri,  elected  by  the  popular  voice,  or  by  a 
single  prefect,  appointed  by  the  city  praetor,  sent  annually  from 
Rome.  Yet  a  third  class,  their  inhabitants  being  Roman 
citizens  in  the  largest  sense,  retained  their  own  magistracies,  and 
their  own  internal  government. 


254  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

Of  these  three  classes  ArpiDum  stood  in  the  second  order, 
being  governed  by  a  single  prefect,  and  having  become  in  all 
respects  a  part  of  Rome,  of  which  her  citizens  were  citizens  like- 
wise ;  and  of  Arpinum,  Marius  was  a  citizen,  of  plebeian  rank, 
serving  in  the  equestrian  centuries ;  the  latter  circumstance  at 
this  period  of  Roman  history,  involving  merely  military  distinc- 
tion, and  probably  indicating  the  possession  of  more  or  less  pro- 
perty, but  having  no  relation  whatever  with  social  distinction  or 
civil  privileges. 

At  this  period  of  Roman  history,  senatorial  rank  had  long 
ceased  to  be  a  condition  of  birth  or  a  patrician  privilege,  having 
become  a  consequence  of  the  tenure  of  certain  magisterial 
offices,  the  candidates  for  which  depended  for  election  on  the 
popular  vote  of  Rome,  and  might  aspire  from  any  condition  or 
order  of  the  state. 

Citizens  only  of  Rome  itself,  or  of  such  praefectural  boroughs 
as  held  the  full  Roman  franchise,  were  eligible  to  such  offices 
as  conferred  senatorial  rank ;  but  citizens  of  all  the  boroughs, 
praefectures,  and  colonies,  which  had  not  the  right  of  suffi*age,  or 
magisterial  eligibility,  at  Rome,  when  they  had  held  senatorial 
magistracies  in  their  native  towns,  were  so  far  at  least  Roman 
citizens,  as  to  be  eligible,  as  we  should  say  ad  eundem,  to  the 
parallel  dignities  in  the  state. 

The  last  named  condition  does  not  apply  to  Caius  Marius, 
who  had  never  served  Arpinum  in  any  capacity,  for  Arpinum 
had  no  separate  national  existence ;  but  was  himself  as  a  per- 
fect citizen,  though  of  the  very  lowest  class,  eligible  by  the 
people  to  any,  even  the  highest,  dignity,  in  regular  official 
gradation. 

I  have  dwelt  somewhat  at  length  on  these  particulare,  not 
that  they  have  any  material  bearing  on  the  military  or  political 
progress  of  this  celebrated  demagogue,  but  that,  in  my  opinion, 
they  have  everything  to  do  with  the  formation  of  his  character, 


THE    ROMAN    CONSTITUTION.  255 

with  the  creation  of  his  political  principles,  with  his  undying 
hatred  to  the  aristocracy,  whether  as  to  individuals,  or  as  to  a 
collective  body,  and  with  the  atrocities,  into  which  he  was  led  by 
his  insatiable  ambition,  and  almost  insane  hatred  of  the  nobles. 

It  has  been  clearly  shown  by  Niebuhr  and  Arnold,  that, 
since  the  passage  of  the  Hortensian  laws,  the  Roman  constitu- 
tion was  as  equally  founded  on  justly  balanced  rights,  and  well 
considered  interests  of  all  classes  in  the  State,  as  is  perhaps  pos- 
sible in  any  form  of  human  government. 

An  equal  power  was  possessed  by  the  higher  and  lower 
legislative  bodies ;  the  higher,  or  senatus,  being  chosen  by  the 
lower,  much  after  the  manner  of  the  English  House  of  Com- 
mons ;  the  lower  being  the  whole  body  of  the  Roman  people, 
voting  in  their  primary  assemblies. 

Neither  to  be  a  senator,  nor  to  hold  any  dignity  in  the  re- 
public, was  it  necessary  to  have  patrician  birth,  or  noble  ances- 
tors. The  noble  houses  held  no  longer  any  distinctive  privi- 
leges, any  hereditary  rights,  save  perhaps  some  few  connected 
with  religious  or  superstitious  office — which  could  offer,  if  any, 
but  temporary  resistance  to  the  popular  will,  whether  for  good 
or  evil — and  in  fact  had  no  political  advantages  over  the  most 
lowly  born  of  their  fellow  citizens,  beyond  that  influence  attach- 
ing to  wealth,  education,  or  descent  from  famous  names  and  a 
truly  noble  race,  which  ever  has  had,  ever  will  have,  and  needs 
must  have  its  weight,  under  whatever  form  of  government,  from 
the  aristocratic  rule  of  the  great  Persian  dynast,  to  the  pure  and 
unmixed  democracy  of  the  fierce  Athenian  mob. 

"  It  is  certain,"  says  Arnold,  "  that  the  senate  retained  high 
and  independent  powers  of  its  own,  which  were  no  less  sovereign 
than  those  possessed  by  the .  assembly  of  the  tribes ;  and  in 
practice,  each  of  these  two  bodies  kept  up  for  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  a  healthy  and  vigorous  life  in  itself,  without  inter- 
fering with 'the  functions  of  the  other.     Mutual  good  sense  and 


256  CAIUS    MARIUS- 

good  feeling,  and  the  continual  moderating  influence  of  the  col* 
lege  of  the  tribunes,  whose  peculiar  position,  as  having  a  veto 
on  the  proceedings  both  of  the  senate  and  the  people,  disposed 
them  to  regulate  the  action  of  each,  prevented  any  serious  colli- 
sion, and  gave  to  the  Roman  constitution  that  mixed  character, 
partly  aristocratic  and  partly  popular,  which  Polybius  recog- 
nized, and  so  greatly  admired.  And  thus  the  event  seems  to 
have  given  the  highest  sanction  to  the  wisdom  of  the  Horten- 
sian  laws ;  nor  can  we  regard  them  as  mischievous  or  revolu- 
tionary, when  we  find  that,  from  the  time  of  their  enactment, 
the  internal  dissensions  of  the  Romans  were  at  an  end  for  a 
hundred  and  fifty  years,  and  that  during  this  period  the  several 
parts  of  the  constitution  were  all  active.  It  was  a  calm  not 
produced  by  the  extinction  of  either  of  the  contending  forces, 
but  by  their  perfect  union."* 

These  were,  indeed,  the  palmy  days  of  the  Roman  constitu- 
tion. United  among  themselves,  self-respecting  and  respecting 
each  other,  all  ordei-s  of  the  state  were  equitably  and  happily 
governors  and  governed.  All  alike  respected  the  laws,  which 
all  alike  had  a  share  in  enacting ;  all  ahke  obeyed  the  magis- 
trates, which  all  alike  had  a  share  in  creating. 

The  rights,  social,  political,  hereditary,  territorial,  of  all  parties 
were  respected  by  all,  because  the  privileges  of  no  one  class 
interfered  with  the  rights  of  any  other.  And  the  interests  of 
none  were  obnoxious,  because  none  had  interests  incompatible 
with  the  public  good. 

Such  had  been  the  state  of  things  at  home,  since  a  period 
shortly  preceding  the  invasion  of  Italy  by  Pyrrhus  the  Epirot, 
in  the  year  of  Rome  4*74,  b.  c.  282.  And  abroad,  so  far  as  her 
aUies  and  Italian  subordinates  of  the  Latin  name  are  concerned, 
the  conduct  of  the  Republic  in  the  main  must  haye  been  just 
and  beneficent,  and  the  advantages  derived  by  the  Italian  states 
*  Hist.  Rome,  vol.  ii.  p.  48. 


DEMOCRATIC    PREPONDERANCE.  257 

from  her  must  have  been  at  least  equal  to  those  which  she  ob- 
tained from  them  ;  since  of  thirty  colonies  not  one  had  swerved 
from  its  fealty,  much  less  joined  the  enemy,  or  made  common 
cause  with  Carthage,  even  after  the  disastrous  and  all  but  fatal 
carnage  of  Thrasymene  and  Cannge,  when  Rome,  shattered  to 
her  very  centre,  reeled  hke  a  foundering  vessel,  as  on  the  point 
to  sink ;  and  when  on  them,  the  faithful  partners  of  her  adverse 
fortunes,  fell  the  brunt  of  Hannibal's  cruel  devastation,  and 
above  a  moiety  of  the  losses  of  that  protracted  and,  as  to  them 
it  must  needs  have  appeared,  almost  unavailing  war,  rested  on 
them  alone. 

So  do  not  pei-secuted  dependencies  in  behalf  of  pei-secuting 
governments. 

They  fought  for  Rome,  because  they  felt  themselves  in  almost 
all  points  Romans,  aspired  to  become  so  altogether,  and  deemed 
it,  justly,  to  be  the  best  of  all  things  for  a  people,  at  that  day, 
to  have  a  portion,  together  with  her  fortunes,  whether  good  or 
evil,  in  the  powers,  the  privileges,  and  the  name  of  Romans. 

It  is  idle,  therefore,  to  talk  henceforth  in  Roman  history  of 
the  oppression  of  the  patrician  houses ;  for  they  had  long  lost 
all  powers  to  oppress,  whether  as  patrons  their  clients,  as  credi- 
tors their  debtoi-s,  or  as  the  legislative  and  indirectly  executive 
power  of  the  state,  the  plebeians  as  a  body. 

The  whole  case  was  now  altered ;  and,  in  the  dissensions 
which  followed,  the  patrician  houses  and  the  patrician  membei*s 
of  the  senate  were  acting  strictly,  in  the  main,  as  the  conserva- 
tive party  of  the  state,  and  the  maintainers  of  law  and  order 
against  the  ultra  democrats,  and  the  wicked  and  unscrupulous 
demagogues  who  led  them,  by  flattering  their  worst  qualities, 
and  ministering  to  their  basest  passions. 

It  was  not  at  that  time  in  Rome  the  question  whether  the 
general  will  of  the  people  should  be  carried  out  or  frustrated 
—for  the  laws,  the  magistracy,   the  judiciary,  were  all  of  tho 


258  CAIUS   MARIUS. 

most  ultra  popular  creation ;  and  there  were  no  human  means 
of  counteracting  the  people's  will,  when  it  was  once  proved  to 
be  the  general  will,  in  the  mode,  under  the  forms,  and  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  laws,  prescribed  and  framed  by  none  others 
than  the  people  themselves. 

But  the  question  urged,  and  the  right  claimed  by  the  ultra 
democratic  party  then,  precisely  as  they  are  those  by  the  ultra 
progressionists  at  this  day,  were  simply  these — that  the  primary 
popular  will,  or  the  will  of  what  might  be  claimed  by  any 
party,  without  proof,  to  be  a  vast  majority,  should  at  once  be- 
come law,  overriding  and  annihilating  on  the  instant  all  existing 
statutes,  all  vested  rights,  all  constitutional  obstacles,  all 
solemnly  sanctioned  treaties ;  in  a  word,  all  opposition,  human 
or  divine. 

This  the  patrician  party  set  themselves  seriously  to  oppose ; 
and  it  is  probable,  nay  !  it  is  almost  certain,  having  a  due 
regard  to  the  analogies  of  human  nature,  that  such  a  party, 
under  such  circumstances,  agitated  moreover  by  apprehensions 
of  constantly  decreasing  privileges  on  their  own  part,  and  con- 
stantly growing  encroachments  on  the  side  of  their  adversaries, 
should  resist,  with  injudicious  and  intemperate  warmth  and 
obstinacy,  reforms  in  themselves  harmless  or  even  salutary,  only 
because  they  emanated  from  a  party  of  whom  they  believed, 
not  without  some  show  of  reason,  that  no  good  could  come. 

Irritated  by  such  opposition,  which  they,  naturally  perhaps, 
knowing  it  to  be  fruitless,  regarded  as  factious,  the  plebeian 
party,  or  democratic  party  rather,  for  the  unity  and  cohesion  of 
the  old  parties  of  the  state  had  been  long  ago  broken  up  and 
abolished,  was  easily  stimulated  by  its  leaders  into  acts  of  vio- 
lence, in  illegally  carrying  measures  into  effect,  which  might 
just  as  easily  have  been  righteously  enacted  by  the  due  opera- 
tion and  under  the  sanction  of  existing  laws ;  and,  thereafter, 
into  rapacity,    iniquity,  and  outrageous  wrong,  in   striving   to 


CONSERVATIVE    OPPOSITION,  259 

overturn  all  existing  institutions,  that  no  man  should  have  any 
rule  which  to  follow,  or  government  to  obey,  beyond  his  own 
arbitrary  and  absolute  will. 

I  am  far,  therefore,  from  intending  to  say  that  patrician  sup- 
porters, whether  in  or  out  of  the  Senate,  did  no  wrong  them- 
selves towards  othere,  either  in  resisting  innovations  when  in  the 
minority,,  or  in  redressing  abuses  and  punishing  injuries,  when 
unexpectedly  and  casually  reinstated  in  the  majority. 

The  proscriptions,  the  atrocities,  the  usurpations  of  Sylla  and 
the  aristocrats  were  no  less  infamous,  nor  a  whit  more  pardon- 
able ;  than  those  of  Marius  and  the  democrats ;  because  they 
were  second  in  point  of  time,  or  consequences  of  prior  excesses. 

In  point  of  policy  they  were  yet  more  ill-considered,  as  more 
fatal,  since  they  diverted  the  general  indignation  from  the 
primary  aggressors,  to  themselves,  who  should  have  been  the 
redressors,  not  the  bloody  and '  barbarous  avengers  of  by-gone 
wrong. 

Moderation," mercy,  and  justice,  punishment  sternly  and  im- 
partially exacted  of  the  guilty,  some  voluntary  concession  of 
harmless  privileges  claimed,  some  graceful  reform  of  trivial 
grievances  still  existing,  when  the  aristocrats  regained  their 
authority,  would  certainly  have  completely  reinstated  them  in 
power ;  and,  in  all  reasonable  probability,  would  have  preserved 
inviolate  and  incorrupt  that  admirable  Roman  constitution  of 
the  sixth  century,  which,  before  the  commencement  of  the 
seventh,  was  convulsed  and  destroyed  by  hideous  anarchy,  and 
buried  in  the  cold  obstruction  of  a  centrahzed  despotism  within  a 
hundred  years  from  the  first  attack  upon  it  by  the  great  soldier 
and  dishonest  citizen  of  whom  I  am  now  to  treat. 

I  do,  however,  unhesitatingly  assert  that  on  the  accession  of 
Marius  to  his  first  curule  office,  his  party  had  no  political 
grievances  whatever  whereof  to  complain  ;  nor  their  antagonists 
any  political  privileges  whatever  injurious  to  the  public  weal. 


260  CAIUS   MARIUS. 

Had  there  existed  any  such  things,  legal  redress  and  legal 
reforms  were  easy  and  certain ;  for  the  populace,  as  an  unity, 
had  the  moiety  of  the  legislative,  and  the  appointment  of  the 
whole  senatorial,  executive,  and  judicial  powers  of  the  state. 

Social  wrongs  there  were  doubtless ;  as  there  ever  have  been, 
and  probably  must  be,  in  all  human  societies,  so  long  as  wealth 
shall  have  power  to  corrupt,  and  men  be  found  so  weak  as  to 
be  corrupted.  Social  wrongs  can,  however,  be  restrained,  if  not 
extirpated,  by  legal  control ;  and  the  poor,  who  complain  of  the 
coiTuptions  practised  by  the  wealthy,  would  do  well  to  remem- 
ber that  they  are  themselves  partners  in  the  guilt;  that  to 
take,  is  no  less  a  sin  against  the  republic  than  to  offer,  a  bribe  ; 
and  that  unlimited  wealth  would  be  powerless  to  buy,  if  poverty 
would  not  be  sold. 

To  cling  to  hereditary  pride  when  hereditary  privilege  has 
passed  away,  to  value  personal  distinction,  antiquity  of  birth  and 
splendor  of  descent  the  more,  as  the  power  and  prerogative, 
which  once  attached  to  them,  diminish  and  depart,  is  the  inno- 
cent, the  impuissant,  but  the  inherent,  sin  of  decayed  aristocra- 
cies. 

Never  is  the  disinherited  noble  so  jealous  of  his  titular  dis- 
tinction, of  his  ancestral  name  and  hereditary  renown,  as  when, 
save  these,  he  has  nothing  left  of  which  to  be  jealous.  Never 
is  he  so  contemptuous  toward  the  upstart,  the  new  man,  the 
nameless  tenant  of  time-honored  dignities,  as  when  he  has  most 
cause  to  envy  him. 

As  the  ancienne  noblesse  of  the  Faubourg  St,  Germain,  in 
the  days  of  the  Burgher  King,  or  the  intrusive  Emperor,  so  were 
the  old  patrician  houses,  in  the  times  of  Caius  Marius. 

Such  powerless  and  unreal  scorn  might  extort  a  smile  of 
compassion  from  the  good  and  great ;  a  sarcastic  sneer  from  the 
cynic,  a  bitter  jest  from  the  stoic ;  but  in  the  ruthless  bosom  of 
the  "  stung  plebeian,"  the  man  of  but  two  names,  it  aroused  a 


HIATUS    IN    HISTORY.  261 

bitterness  of  hellish  hatred  almost  inconceivable,  a  thirst  for 
vengeance,  to  be  slaked  only  in  torrents  of  pure  and  noble  blood. 

To  the  student  of  Roman  history,  it  is  a  matter  of  the  deepest 
regret  that  at  the  very  period  when  authentic  and  contempora- 
neous narration  may  be  said  to  have  fairly  commenced,  and 
when  events  unparalleled  in  magnitude  and  interest  were  taking 
place,  both  in  the  circumstances  of  the  foreign  world — against 
which,  liberated  by  the  fall  of  Carthage  from  all  danger  to  her 
own  security,  the  great  Republic  had  now  turned  her  arms  with 
a  fixed  purpose  of  universal  conquest — and  in  the  polity  of  the 
state  itself,  wherein  changes  the  most  important  were  in  pro- 
gress, he  is  met  by  a  fatal  hiatus  in  history  itself,  and  has 
nothing  on  which  to  rely  beyond  an  abridged  epitome,  a  few 
scattered  fragments,  and  some  bald  gossip  of  garrulous  old 
Plutarch,  who,  for  a  while,  must  be  held  perhaps  the  best  ex- 
tant guide. 

Of  all  the  mighty  enterprises  and  great  achievements  of  the 
sublimely  bad  plebeian,  which  raised  him  to  such  a  preeminence 
of  glory,  that  the  grand  Roman*  Satirist  could  conceive 
nothing  within  the  range  of  nature  comparable  to  his  beatitude 
on  the  day  of  his  Teutonic  triumph,  we  have  scarcely  any  de- 
tails, beyond  a  mere  enumeration  of  his  battles,  his  victories,  his 
glories,  and  his  crimes ;  if  we  except  the  elegant  relation  of  his 
Jugurthine  campaigns  by  the  classic  hand  of  Sallust ;  while  of 
his  yet  more  glorious  and  scarce  less  cruel  rival. 

Triumphant  Sylla,  he  whose  chariots  rolled, 
On  Fortune's  wheel. 

nearly  the  same  obscurity  conceals  the  brightest  exploits.    Their 

wars,  defensive  and   offensive,  set   by  their  success  an  indelible 

mark    on    the   pages    of  Rome's   military  annals,  as  did  their 

poUtical  strife  and  personal  hatred  on  those  of  her  constitutional 

*  Juvenal.  Sat.  X.  276. 


262  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

history  ;  but  of  the  meaos  by  which  each  or  either  attained  his 
extraordinary  ends,  we  are  reduced,  unfortunately,  to  judge 
principally  from  results,  all  precise  infornaation  being  lost  con- 
cerning the  principles  and  arts  of  their  warfare,  and  even  con- 
cerning the  particulars  of  their  greatest  actions. 

It  is  probable  that  Caius  Marius  was  born  in  or  about  the 
59*7 th  year  of  the  Republic,  and  the  157th  before  the  Christian 
era,  of  unknown  parents,  and  in  the  lowest  class  of  society.  He 
is  described  by  Velleius  Paterculus,*  as  a  grim-featured,  un- 
kempt man,  pure  in  private  hfe,  but  rugged  and  uncivilized  to 
excess ;  and  Plutarch  states  of  him,  having  seen  his  marble 
statue  at  Ravenna,  in  Gaul,  that  **  his  aspect  was  harsh  and 
morose,  and  that  having,  from  his  early  childhood,  applied  him- 
self to  arts  of  strength  and  manhood,  and  to  the  acquisition  of 
military,  rather  than  civil,  knowledge,  he  was  violent  of  nature 
and  unable  to  control  or  moderate  his  passions.  He  never  con- 
descended to  learn  Greek  letters,  or  to  use  the  tongue,  holding 
it  absurd  and  disgraceful  to  study  the  language  of  a  people 
who  were  enslaved  to  their  pupils.  And  could  he  have  been 
induced  to  sacrifice  to  the  Greek  Muses  and  Graces,  "  he  would 
not,"  says  the  Greek  chronicler,  "  have  put  so  disgraceful  a 
coping-stone  of  savage  ignorance  and  brute  cruelty,  to  his  deeds 
of  war  and  statesmanship."! 

He  was  first  employed  under  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio  ^mi- 
lianus,  son  of  Lucius  ^milius  Paullus,  the  conqueror  of  Per- 
seus, at  the  celebrated  Siege  of  Numantia,  in  Spain,  where  it  is 
not  a  little  singular  that  he  was  brought  into  association  with 
the  young  Jugurtha,  who  was  at  that  time  serving  the  Romans 
in  command  of  large  bodies  of  Nuraidian  cavalry,  the  contin- 
gent of  his  uncle  Micipsa,  who  is  said  to  have  been  actuated  in 
employing  him  in  such  duty  by  a  desire  of  ridding  himself,  by 

^  Veil.  Pat.  ii.  11. 

t  Plutarch  Vit.  Caii.  Mar.  II. 


EARLY    LIFE.  263 

some  of  the  chances  of  war,  of  one  in  whom  he  foresaw  a  dan- 
gerous and  ambitious  rival  of  his  own  sons  for  the  crown  of 
Nuraida.  Be  this  as  it  may,  under  the  auspices  of  the  distin- 
guished commander  who  destroyed  Carthage,  both  these  young 
men  learned  and  practised,  side  by  side,  those  arts  of  war  and 
principles  of  strategy,  which  they  were,  at  a  future  period,  des- 
tined to  put  into  application  one  against  the  other.  But  they, 
for  the  moment,  contended  only  in  diligence  of  study,  patience 
of  hardship,  resolution  to  endure  and  audacity  to  do,  who  should 
in  after  days  maintain  a  darker  contest ;  which  should  deserve  the 
most  infamous  repute,  as  most  vindictive,  sanguinary,  ruthless, 
and  unrelenting  of  butchers  and  usurpers. 

With  the  exception  of  courage,  and  a  sort  of  cold  integrity 
which  cannot  fail  to  remind  one  of  the  vaunted  incorruptibility 
of  Carlisle's  favorite  monster,  Robespierre,  Marius  appears  to 
have  possessed  no  one  redeeming  quality  or  characteristic,  no 
one  liberal  taste  or  gentle  feeling. 

He  was  a  great  leader  and  an  unconquerable  hater,  and  no 
more.  Jugurtha  had  not  even  the  poor  palliation  of  integrity  of 
life ;  he  was  in  all  respects  a  thorough  and  untamed  barbarian, 
with  all  his  vices  and  few  of  his  virtues. 

It  may  be  that  their  early  intercourse  had  something  to  do 
with  the  similarity  of  their  savage  tempers,  and  brutal  careers, 
— however  different  their  fortunes.  While  they  were  com- 
rades, it  is  certain  that  both  highly  distinguished  themselves,  so 
that  Scipio  was  induced  to  bring  them  prominently  forward, 
noticing  them  in  his  dispatches,  employing  them  in  hazardous 
expeditions,  where  they  might  win  a  name,  and  often  honoring 
them  with  invitations  to  his  table. 

On  one  of  these  occasions,  it  is  said,  that,  when  his  officers 
were  drmking  around  the  general  and  striving  to  gain  his  favor 
by  adulation,  some  one  asked  Scipio,  where,  after  his  career  of 
^lory  should  be  ende^J,  the  Romans  might  hope  to  find  such 


264  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

another  general  and  consul  as  bimself ;  to  which  Scipio  replied, 
laying  his  hand  playfully  on  the  shoulder  of  Marius,  who  re- 
clined the  next  to  him  on  the  same  couch — "  Perhaps  here" — 
"so  quick  were  they  both,"  adds  the  narrator,  "the  latter  to  dis- 
play his  greatness,  while  yet  but  a  youth,  the  former  to  prog- 
nosticate vast  ends  from  such  beginnings." 

For  some  time  after  the  conclusion  of  the  Spanish  war,  Marius 
appeal's  to  have  led  a  retired  civilian  life,  for  it  is  not  until  the 
year  635  of  Rome,  or  119  b.  c,  that  we  find  him  occupying  the 
place  of  tribune  of  the  people,  during  the  consulship  of  Lucius 
Csecilius  Metellus,  surnamed  Dalmaticus  for  his  conquests  in  that 
country,  and  Lucius  Aurelius  Cotta,  the  former  of  whom  was 
his  fast  friend,  and  in  some  considerable  degree  brought  about 
his  election,  while  the  latter  found  in  him  a  vigorous  and  un- 
scrupulous political  antagonist. 

In  this  office,  he  conducted  himself  with  all  the  stern  and  self- 
sufficient  firmness  and  courage  which  his  whole  after  career  so 
clearly  proved  him  to  possess,  but  exhibited  as  yet  no  symptoms 
of  the  inordinate  ambition  and  savage  temper  which  became  his 
chief  characteristics. 

His  first  measure  was  an  act,  lex  Maria  de  Suffragiis^  relat- 
ing to  the  police  an-angements  of  the  election,  by  which  to  pre- 
vent the  polling  of  the  votes  of  those  who  were  neither  citizens 
nor  electors.  The  law  was  wise  and  salutary,  but  a  party  of 
nobles,  with  Aurelius  Cotta,  the  consul,  at  their  head,  endea- 
voring fraudulently  to  defeat  it,  by  withholding  the  authority  of 
the  Senate,  Marius,  in  his  quality  of  tribune,  threatened  to  com- 
mit the  consul,  and  subsequently  Lucius  Metellus,  the  princeps 
Senatus,  to  prison,  should  they  not  allow  a  reconsideration  of 
the  matter,  and  its  reference  to  the  people  with  the  senatorial 
sanction. 

This  counsel  fortunately  prevailed ;  the  bill  passed  into  a  law, 
and   Marius    gained   great  popularity  for   the   resolution  and 


HIS    PR^TORSHIP.  265 

bravery  with  which  he  had  maintained  the  right  against  aristo- 
cratical  aggression.  Before  he  vacated  his  office,  however,  he 
had  equal  occasion  to  prove  himself  no  more  liable  to  plebeian 
than  to  noble  intimidation.  One  of  his  colleagues,  having 
moved  a  distribution  of  grain  from  the  public  granaries,  either 
gratuitous  or  at  a  rate  far  below  the  market  prices,  among  the 
indigent  citizens — a  common  expedient  of  the  factious  Roman 
demagogue  to  carry  mob  popularity  at  the  expence  of  the 
common  weal,  and  against  all  sound  principles  of  public  econo- 
my— Marius  resisted  the  pernicious  innovation  wnth  so  much 
power  and  such  indomitable  will,  that  he  gained  his  object;  and 
showed  himself  hitherto,  although  a  member  of  the  popular 
party,  no  blind  partizan  of  a  faction,  but  a  man  willing  and 
capable  to  compel  the  administration  of  equal  justice  in  the 
state.  After  passing  through  this  necessary  step  of  tribuneship, 
it  would  appear  that  Caius  Marius  failed  in  his  efforts  to  obtain 
the  office  either  of  plebeian  or  curule  (Edile,  for  both  which  he 
sued  and  was  defeated  in  a  single  day,*  owing  to  the  uncom- 
promising harshness  and  arrogance  of  his  demeanor. 

Some  time  afterward,  becoming  candidate  for  the  praetorship, 
he  obtained  it,  though  not  without  great  difficulty,  owing  to,  the 
strenuous  opposition  of  the  nobles,  and  to  some  suspicion  of 
bribery,  which  would  seem  not  to  have  been  without  some  show 
of  foundation,  since  Cassius  Sabaco,  a  senator  of  his  faction  and 
his  familiar  associate,  was  degraded  from  the  senate  by  the 
Censoi-s,  owing  to  his  alleged  privity  in  the  corruption.  In  his 
praetorship,  he  appears  to  have  performed  nothing  of  moment : 
and,  after  the  expiration  of  that  office  having  obtained  by  lot,  the 
pro-prgetorship  of  farther  Spain,  he  is  said  there  to  have  sup- 
pressed the  predatory  habits  of  the  native  tribes,  among  whom^ 
as  in  the  Celtic  races  generally,  robbery  of  cattle,  on  a  large  scale. 
*  Plutarch,  Vit.  Caii.  Mar.  V. 
12 


266  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

and  the  prosecution  of  deadly  feuds  and  frays  were  deemed  in 
no  wise  discreditable,  if  not  decidedly  the  reverse.  Thus  far 
this  singular  man  does  not  appear  to  have  done  much,  either  in 
military  or  civil  life,  worthy  of  mark,  and  what  little  he  had 
done  rather  of  negative  than  positive  merit. 

The  greatest  testimony  as  yet  in  his  favor,  even  as  a  man  of 
action,  is  the  reported  favorable  opinion  of  Scipio,  under  whom, 
however,  he  could  only  have  served  in  a  very  subordinate  rank ; 
and  indeed  even  this  evidence  is  in  some  degree  discredited  by 
the  fact  that  fifteen  years  elapsed  between  his  supposed  exploits 
at  Numantia,  and  his  attainment  of  the  secondary  office  of 
Tribune  of  the  Commons. 

In  this,  although  he  unquestionably  showed  himself  a  person  of 
courage  and  steadfastness  and  an  upright  citizen,  he  as  clearly 
failed  to  produce  any  extraordinary  impression  even  on  his  own 
party,  which  were  rapidly  gaining  the  ascendant  in  the  state, 
since  they  did  not  rally  about  him,  or  put  him  forward  success- 
fully as  their  candidate  for  the  higher,  much  less  the  highest 
dignities ;  and  it  is  distinctlj^  stated  that  he  was  desirous  on  his 
return  from  Spain  of  applying  for  the  consulship,  but  did  not 
venture  to  become  a  candidate. 

Still  it  may  not  be  doubted  that  he  had  shown  signal  marks 
of  capacity  in  some  sort ;  for,  though  he  possessed  no  wealth, 
which  had  gradually  become  there — as  it  is  unhappily  becoming 
with  us — the  easiest  key  to  popular  consideration ;  nor  marked 
political  influence  ;  nor  the  charm  of  affability  ;  nor  any  social 
grace  of  public  or  private  life,  he  continued  to  rise  in  public  opinion, 
and  espoused  a  lady  of  the  haughty  patrician  family,  who  claimed 
to  trace  their  pedigree  to  lulus  or  Ascanius,  son  of  JEneas,  the 
Trojan  colonist  of  Italy,  and  founder  of  Alba  Longa,  whence  the 
royal  race  of  Rome.  This  lady  was  the  aunt  of  the  afterward 
famous  Caius  Julius  Caesar  the  final  subverter  of  the  Republic, 


ROME  SINCE    123    B.    C.  26Y 

which  after  him,  had,  in  fact,  but  for  a  few  yeai*s,  even  a  nomi- 
nal existence.     So  near  have  we  approached  the  end. 

iVt  this  period  in  the  history  of  Kome  we  find,  on  careful  ob- 
servation, that  ahnost  everything  that  was  good  in  the  constitu- 
tion, and  in  its  divisions  and  parties,  had  ah-eady  been  changed, 
altered,  or  destroyed. 

It  was  no  longer  a  strife  between  the  old  populus  or  privi- 
leged burgher  class,  and  the  proletarian  plebs  possessed  of  few 
rights  and  inehgible  to  any  dignities.  It  was  no  longer  a 
struggle  between  the  senate  and  the  old  houses,  and  the  people 
at  large,  these  for  the  retention  of  oppressive  prerogatives,  and 
those  for  the  extension  of  rightful  privileges.  It  was  no  longer 
even  the  legitimate  social  struggle  for  lawful  dignity,  by  lawful 
election,  between  the  haughty  exclusionists  of  the  old  senatorial 
and  sacerdotal  houses,  and  the  ardent  and  ambitious  represen- 
tatives of  newly-risen  famihes. 

The  old  aristocracy  had  ceased  to  exist.  The  old  populus 
had  no  privileges.  The  old  plebs  no  oppressions.  The  senato- 
rial dignity,  and  thence  the  very  highest  offices  were  attainable 
by  the  meanest  citizen,  were  in  the  gift  of  the  general  assembly, 
of  which  every  Roman  citizen  was  a  member,  and  an  equal 
voter. 

But  wealth  had  invaded  the  Roman  repubhc,  like  an  entering 
ocean   tide  of  corruption.     A  new  class  had  sprung  up  in  the  - 
state,  unknown  of  old,  the  equites,  or,  as  we  persist  most   ab- 
surdly in  translating  the  word,  knights. 

This  class,  which  was  originally  composed  merely  of  the 
wealthier  order  of  citizens,  who  were  compelled  to  serve  in  the 
legions,  of  the  old  form,  on  horseback,  at  their  own  expense,  as 
privates,  without  privilege  or  prerogative,  had  long  since  fallen 
into  abeyance.  After  the  withdrawal  of  Hannibal  from  Italy, 
the  Roman  citizen  never  served  on  horseback ;  and  the  cavalry 
was  supplied  by  the  Italian  colonies,  the  allies  of   the  Latin 


268  CAIUS    MA.IIIUS. 

name,  and  yet  more  largely  by  mercenaries,  N"umidians,  Thra- 
cians,  Gauls,  Illyrians,  and  the  like.  Peifectly  clear  is  this,  from 
the  fact  that,  in  his  Gallic  conquests,  JuHus  Caesar  finding  the 
want  of  Roman  horse  on  whom  he  could  rely,  drafted  a  poition 
of  his  legionary  foot,  and  mounted  them  as  tumultuary  cavalry 
for  the  time  of  need. 

This  class,  as  it  now  existed,  had  no  more  connection  with 
horses,  or  hoi*se-service,  than  had  their  predecessors  with  those 
chivalrous  duties  and  that  high  honorary  rank,  which  is  natu- 
rally connected  with  the  English  word,  knight,  so  strangely  mis- 
applied to  this  Roman  order  by  modern  historians. 

In  the  year  123  b.  c,  or  of  the  City  631,  by  the  Sempronian 
laws  of  Gracchus,  a  new  or  do  equestris  was  created,*  by  which 
all  pei-sons  possessing  the  rank  of  eques^  from  the  having  a  horse 
assigned  to  them  at  the  public  expense,  or  from  holding  suffi- 
cient income  to  entitle  them  to  that  distinction,  as  liable  to  serve 
on  hoi-se  at  their  own  expense,  were  exempted  from  cavalry 
service,  but  required  to  perform  the  duty  oi  judices,  something 
intermediate — to  state  it  briefly — ^between  jurors  and  our 
justices  of  peace. 

For  a  time,  this  name  oieques  did  not  carry  with  it  anything 
worth  having  ;  and,  within  a  few  yeare,  the  judicial  powers  of 
the  equites  being  abolished  by  the  Aurelian  Laws  of  Sylla,  not 
even  a  shadow  of  state  power.  But,  to  come  strictly  to  the  point, 
from  the  day  when  they  ceased  to  be  cavalry  privates,  they  were 
to  the  end  moneyholdei-s,  money-buyers,  money-lendei-s,  govern- 
ment-contract-brokei-s,  farmers  of  public  revenues,  and  so  masters 
of  Rome. 

They  possessed  no  position  in  the  state,  except  that  which 

their  wealth  gave  them.     They  were  not,  and  could  not  be, 

senators,  except  by  popular  election  to  senatorial  offices.     They 

were  vastly  rich-deedly  despised,  both  by  men  who   had   done 

*  Anthon's  Cla^s.  Die,  Article  Sempronia. 


THE    EQUITES.  269 

great  deeds  themselves,  and  who  could  point  to  great  deeds 
of  old,  done  by  their  ancestors,  and  utterly  scorned  and 
hated  by  the  new  men,  builders  up  of  their  own  nobility  and 
names  by  their  own  exploits,  though  nameless  and  without 
ancestry.  Even  the  nobles  might  associate  with  these  latter, 
notwithstanding  their  want  of  ancestry  and  images,  as  if 
worthy  of  their  own  merits  to  have  possessed  both.  Neither 
the  nobles  nor  the  populace  would  tolerate  men,  who,  owning 
nothing  but  money,  claimed  to  be  superior  by  that  alone,  to 
families,  or  individuals  of  noble  ancestry,  distinguished  ser- 
vice and  undoubted  merit.  The  nobles  scorned  them  for  their 
arrogant  assumption  and  pretentious  ostentation,  as  perhaps 
they  envied  them  for  the  wealth,  from  which  these  arose, 
coupled  to  their  lack  of  honors  either  transmitted  or  ac- 
quired. The  people  hated  them  for  their  high-swollen  abun- 
dance, their  utter  uselessness  as  men,  and  their  insolent 
pride,  more  offensive  than  that  of  the  nobles.  Therefore, 
the  equites  compelled,  in  some  sort,  to  form  a  class  of  their 
own,  determined  to  become  the  dominant  class  through  the 
only  means  which  they  possessed,  and  in  the  end  effected 
their  object.  Wealthy,  ignoble,  lazy,  gaining  money  by 
money,  holding  all  things — as  money  dealers  ever  do — even 
to  themselves,  venal,  they  labored  to  reduce  everything  to 
their  own  standard,  by  rendering  all  things  from  the  highest 
office  to  the  lowest  vote  venal  likewise,  and  in  doing  this 
also  they  succeeded. 

From  that  period  money  ruled  Rome  ;  and  all  distinction 
of  political  parties,  according  to  the  distinctions  of  birth, 
high  name,  virtue,  "vigor  of  bone,  desert  in  service,"  or 
social  position,  was  obliterated.  Henceforth  all  was  a 
gigantic  scramble  for  the  tenure  of  office — office  to  be  pur- 
chased by  wealth,  and  to  be  rendered  productive  of  wealth, 
the  only  end  for  which  to  purchase  it. 


270  CAIUS   MARIUS. 

Henceforth,  all  distinction  ends  between  Patrician  and 
Plebeian.  All  true  distinction  even  between  Aristocrat  and 
Democrat.  The  aristocrats,  of  this  latter  day,  or  the  men 
of  noble  families  and  ancient  principles,  strove  in  council,  or 
in  arms,  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Old  Republic.  The 
democrats  struggled  for  the  aboUtion  of  all  orders,  all  pri- 
vileges, all  property — the  plebeian  democrats,  from  pure 
hatred  to  nobility,  and  from  an  honest  but  ignorant  desire  to 
promote  the  interests  of  their  class — the  democratic  nobles 
for  anarchy,  out  of  which  to  create  despotism.  The  plebeian 
democrats,  as  the  Gracchi,  Flaccus,  Saturninus,  Glaucia, 
Saufeius,  Sulpicius,  Marius,  Cinna  perished  more  by  the 
results  of  their  own  extravagant  excesses  and  atrocities,  than 
by  the  efforts  of  their  enemies. 

The  true  repubUcans,  styled  by  their  enemies  aristocrats, 
fell  everywhere  by  the  sword  of  war,  of  massacre,  of  private 
assassination — fell  with  Cicero  at  Liternum,  with  Pompey  at 
Pharsalia,  and  were  extinguished  with  the  last  of  their  order, 
Cassius  and  Brutus,  at  Philippi. 

The  vicious  nobles  calling  themselves  democrats,  using  the 
wealth  of  the  capitalists,  and  the  blood  and  bone  of  the 
deluded  populace,  killed  the  repubhc,  made  the  empire  and 
ruled  the  world.  But  the  world  at  length  became  aweary  of 
them  and  their  rule  ;  and  after  centuries  of  frozen  despotism, 
thawed  at  times  only  by  deluges  of  virtuous  blood,  their 
empire,  child  of  wealth  and  corruption,  itself  became  venal, 
and  fell  by  the  very  elements  from  which  it  sprang. 

From  the  year  123  before  the  Christian  Era,  capital  gov- 
erned Home.  From  that  year,  venal  and  infamous,  she 
tottered  to  her  fall ;  and  with  but  a  few  momentary  efforts, 
brilUant  but  brief,  at  recuperation,  declined  hourly  thence- 
forth to  the  abyss  in  which  were  soon  to  be  entombed  her 
liberty  and  glory, 


THE    STATE    OF    THE    TIMES.  2tl 

This  digression  is  needful,  because  to  the  reader  of  my 
sketches  a  brief  synopsis  must  be  given,  in  order  to  his  com- 
prehending the  changes  in  the  condition  of  the  state  and  in 
the  character  of  the  times,  and  the  effect  produced  by  them 
on  the  character,  principles  and  natures  of  men  ;  so  that 
individuals  and  actions  should  be  in  the  natural  order  and 
rule  of  one  century,  which  would  have  been  impossible,  even 
as  exceptions  and  monstrosities,  in  that  preceding  it. 

So  that  vvithin  one  century  from  that  splendid  and  unri- 
valled act  of  self-devotion,  by  which  the  whole  body  of  the 
Roman  Aristocracy  surrendered  its  entke  property  to  the  last 
pound  of  silver,  to  the  exigencies  of  the  state,  or  that  scarce 
inferior  act  of  magnanimity,  by  which  it  would  not  descend 
to  rebuke  the  ten  delinquent  colonies — when  Hannibal  was 
thundering  at  the  very  gates — the  same  Republic  should 
have  produced  in  quick  succession,  a  Saturninus,  Marius, 
Sylla,  Cethegus,  Catiline,  Caesar.  Nor  perhaps  may  this 
sketch  fail  altogether  to  attract  the  attention  of  men  of 
modern  times  to  the  gradually  growing  influence  of  capital, 
not  only  over  personal  integrity,  personal  honor,  and  personal 
independence,  but  even  over  the  national  faith,  justice, 
honor,  and  uncompromising  nationality  of  countries. 

This  preamble,  I  trust  not  tedious,  leads  to  the  condition 
of  public  affairs,  when  Marius  was  again  called  to  command 
for  Rome,  and  to  the  reasons,  not  more  of  his  being  called 
to  office,  than  of  his  subsequent  career. 

Shortly  before  the  commencement  of  the  Jugurthine  war, 
Micipsa,  the  son  and  successor  of  Massinissa,  the  old  ally 
of  the  Romans  and  sole  monarch  of  all  the  sea-coast  of 
Africa,  westward  so  far  as  the  river  Molochath  or  Mulucha, 
which  divided  his  dominions  from  those  of  the  king  of 
Morocco,  and  inland  so  far  as  the  country  of  the  Tuaricks 
and  the  Great  Desert,  died,  bequeathing  his  kingdom  be- 


272  CAIUS   MARIUS. 

tween  his  sons,  Adherbal  and  Hiempsal,  and  his  nephew 
Jugurtha,  who  was  son  of  his  base-born  brother  Mastanabal. 
Jugurtha,  however,  who  was  evidently  the  favorite  of  his 
people,  the  best  horseman,  hunter,  warrior  of  his  tribe,  who 
had  been  known  often  to  slay  the  lion,  hand  to  hand,  in  per- 
sonal conflict,  who  had  won  eulogies  and  honor  even  from 
the  warlike  Romans,  who  was  in  all  his  actions,  all  his  char- 
acteristics a  genuine  son  of  the  desert,  not  content  with  a 
portion  of  the  kingdom  to  which  he  felt  that  his  capacity,  if 
not  his  birth  entitled  him,  aspired  to  the  mastery  of  the 
whole. 

His  brother  kinglings,*  reguli,  as  the  Komans  termed 
them,  must  have  been  distasteful  to  their  people,  who  dreaded, 
and  with  justice,  the  interference  of  the  encroaching  Italians, 
who  never  withdrew  their  foot  from  a  spot  of  earth  whereon 
they  had  once  set  it,  whether  as  friend,  ally,  mediator  or 
avenger.  And  to  this  encroaching  people  Adherbal  and 
Hiempsal  paid,  it  would  seem,  assiduous  court,  associating 
with  the  Roman  alien "  traders  of  the  coast-cities,  aping 
Roman  manners  and  usages  in  their  courts,  deferring  in  all 
things  to  the  ofi&cers  of  the  Roman  province,  and  in  a  wordh, 
submitting  to  the  proud  republic  as  their  masters. 

M.  Michelet,  the  celebrated  historian  of  the  Roman  Re- 
public, endeavors  strenuously  to  prove  that  Jugurtha  has 
been  improperly  stigmatized  as  an  usurper,  and  that  such  a 
title  applies  more  justly  to  his  unhappy  kindred  colleagues, 
f  "Those  who  consider  him  such,"  he  says,  "ought  first  to 
have  ascertained  whether  a  law  of  inheritance  existed  in  the 
deserts  of  Numidia.  The  barbarians  generally  chose  for  a 
king  the  most  worthy  member  of  a  family.     The  Numidians 

*  Sallust,  vit.  Jug.  xii. 

t  Michelet  Rome  Rep.,  243. 


HEREDITARY    ROYALTY.  2^3 

thought  that  the  will  of  a  deceased  person  could  not  over- 
balance the  rights  of  a  nation." 

All  very  eloquent  and  good,  if  it  were  in  the  least  true. 
But  it  is  not.  For  in  the  first  place  no  barbaric  nations  of 
tlie  Eastern  races,  have  ever  had,  or  claimed  to  have,  elective 
chiefs,  but  have  at  all  times  been  governed  by  hereditary 
princes  of  the  ruling  family — since  whatever  deviations 
have  occurred  from  the  true  hereditary  line  of  succession 
arose  from  the  intrigues  of  the  court  and  harem,  or  the 
practice  of  kindred  assassination,  at  once  the  reproach  and 
bane  of  polygamous  barbarian  despotisms,  and  by  no  means 
from  the  popular  voice. 

In  the  second  place,  facts  prove  that  the  kingdom  of 
^N^umidia  was  hereditary  in  the  heir  male  of  the  royal  line. 
For  Massinissa,  the  first  Numidian  king  with  whom  the 
Romans  seem  to  have  come  into  personal  contact,  succeeded 
his  father  Gula  on  the  throne,  and  was  in  his  turn  succeeded 
by  his  own  eldest  son  Micipsa,  without  the  smallest  tumult  or 
even  opposition  from  the  people.  He  dying  bequeathed  his 
kingdom  to  his  sons  and  his  base-blooded  nephew,  who  owed 
his  preservation  from  the  secret  knife  to  which  he  would 
probably  have  been  doomed,  as  a  dangerous  rival  and  com- 
petitor of  his  cousins,  to  his  own  prowess  displayed  at 
Numantia,  and  to  his  known  intimacy  with  many  of  the 
Roman  magistrates  and  nobles  ;  perhaps,  in  some  degree  to 
his  personal  astuteness  and  popularity  with  his  people,  ren- 
dering it  difficult  to  take  him  off  in  secret. 

True  it  is  that  the  faith  of  his  countrymen,  and  the  invet- 
erate obstinacy  of  their  adherence  to  him,  unto  the  very 
last,  through  all  extremities  of  fortune,  after  he  had  assumed 
the  undivided  sovereignty,  sufficiently  indicate  him  the  choice 
and  favorite  of  his  countrymen,  while  it  goes  far  to  prove 
the  falsity  of  the  terms  fickle,  fight,  and  inconstant,  as 
12* 


2t4  CAmS   MARIUS. 

applied  by  their  enemies  to  the  Numidians,  who  never  to  the 
end,  even  when  he  had  become  suspicious,  sudden  and 
sanguinary,  swerved  from  their  fealty  to  the  king,  whom  if 
they  had  not  elected  to  the  crown,  they  assuredly  elected  to 
follow. 

I  note  this  merely  to  correct  an  error.  Jugurtha  was 
assuredly  an  usurper  in  every  sense  of  the.  word,  as  he  was 
also  deeply  imbued  in  the  guilt  of  kindred  bloodshed.  But 
usurpation,  in  oriental  despotisms,  is  not  regarded  as  a  crime, 
but  rather  as  an  evidence  of  courage,  capacity  and  conduct 
in  the  usurper.  And  among  brothers  born  of  the  slaves 
of  the  harem,  there  is  so  little  of  intercourse,  affection,  or 
even  usage  of  kindred,  that  fratricide  is  to  this  day  a  thing 
of  hourly  occurrence,  generally  regarded  with  no  abhorrence, 
but  looked  upon  rather  as  a  strong  measure  of  policy,  excu- 
sable on  the  plea  of  stronger  necessity. 

Therefore,  though  I  cannot  assume,  with  M.  Michelet, 
either  that  Jugurtha  was  not  an  usurper,  or  that  he  regarded 
himself  as  the  lawful  king  and  punished  his  unfortunate 
cousins  with  death,  and  torture  before  death,  as  themselves 
usurpers  ;  neither  can  I  regard  the  crimes  and  kindred 
assassinations  of  this  wild,  indomitable  man,  as  they  would 
be  regarded,  if  the  work  even  of  a  civilized  Greek  or 
Koman,  much  more  of  a  man  of  the  present  time  and  dis- 
pensation. 

Be  this,  however,  as  it  may,  scarce  had  the  princes  sepa- 
rated after  their  first  conference,  before  Jugurtha  succeeded, 
by  debauching  the  followers  of  Hiempsal,  in  having  him 
murdered  by  his  emissaries,  in  his  own  lodgings  in  the  town 
of  Thirmida,  within  his  own  dominions.  His  head  was 
carried  to  Jugurtha,  who  at  once  throwing  off  the  mask 
invaded  the  territories  of  Adherbal.  These  were  the  richest 
and  most  populous  regions  of  Africa,  the  mercantile  half- 


BRIBERY    OF   JUGURTHA.  215 

Romanized  cities,  and  the  wealthy  agricultural  districts  of 
the  coast.  Adherbal,  therefore,  had  the  more  adherents,  but 
the  other  had  the  better  men  and  soldiers  of  the  desert. 

Adherbal  sent  envoys  to  Rome,  but  prepared  armed  resis- 
tance, was  conquered  and  fled  into  the  Roman  province  of 
Carthage,  leaving  his  rival  the  undisputed  sovereign  of  all 
Numidia. 

Jugurtha  sent  envoys  also,  with  much  gold,  for  he  knew 
the  Roman  aristocracy  of  the  day,  and  with  orders  to  make 
the  most  profuse  largesses,  wherever  friends  might  be  gained 
among  the  influential  nobles,  or  votes  purchased  in  the 
Senate  ;  and  so  perfectly  did  they  play  their  part,  that  ere 
long  they  reported  to  their  master,  that  he  might  safely 
leave  his  cause  to  the  decision  of  the  Republic. 

The  event  proved  the  justice  of  their  judgment.  Both  parties 
pleaded  their  causes  ;  and,  when  the  envoys  had  withdrawn, 
after  an  earnest  debate,  in  which  all  those  to  whom  justice 
and  right  were  dearer  than  wealth,  and  with  them  ^milius 
Scaurus,  one  of  the  most  influential  senators  of  the  day,  spoke 
and  voted  for  assisting  Adherbal  and  punishing  Jugurtha. 
Jugurtha^s  bribes  prevailed  over  what  little  yet  remained  of 
Rome's  honor. 

It  was  decreed  that  the  kingdom  of  the  late  monarch 
Micipsa  should  be  equally  divided  between  the  kindred  dis- 
putants by  ten  commissioners,  the  principal  personage  of 
whom  was  Lucius  Opimius,  a  man  of  consular  dignity,  who 
on  account  of  his  sanguinary  suppression  of  the  faction 
headed  by  Caius  Gracchus  and  Fulvius  Flaccus,  was  the 
most  powerful  person  in  Rome  with  the  aristocracy. 

Him  Jugurtha,  though  he  esteemed  him  as  an  enemy, 
yet  received  with  such  high  consideration,  and  with  so  adroit 
a  mixture  of  flattery,  and  gifts,  which  he  could  not  decline  as 
bribes,  and  promises,,  that  he  brought  him  over  to  his  party. 


2t6  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

Others,  a  majority,  of  the  commissioners,  he  gained  over  by 
the  same  means,  but  with  less  caution.  A  powerless  minority 
preferred  good  report  to  gold. 

In  the  end,  the  usurper  gained  what  he  desired,  the 
western  country  of  Algeria,  larger  in  extent,  richer  in  men, 
adjoining  the  frontiers  of  Morocco,  including  all  the  northern 
spurs  of  the  Atlas  chain,  and  the  desert  of  Angad,  the 
country  of  the  Kabyles  and  Berbers,  to  this  day  the  most 
terrible  of  the  Mediterranean  tribes  of  Africa — while  to  the 
share  of  Adherbal  fell  the  eastern  division,  adjoining  the 
Roman  province,  well  cultivated,  abounding  in  marts  of 
trade  and  well  built  commercial  cities,  its  coasts  full  of  secure 
harbors,  its  fields  productive  and  stocked  with  cattle,  the 
commercial,  agricultural,  Italianized  Africa  of  the  coast — 
for  the  effeminate,  unwarlike,  peace-loving  sovereign,  un- 
doubtedly the  preferable  region. 

Still  he  was  by  no  means  contented  ;  for  who  has  heard 
at  any  time  that  the  greed  of  ambition  is  satiable  by  minis- 
tering to  its  appetite.  On  the  contrary,  having  won  the 
stake  for  which  he  played  almost  against  his  own  expecta- 
tion, and  confirmed  by  the  event  in  his  estimate  of  Homers 
absolute  venality,  he  even  overrated  the  influence  of  gold, 
on  her  magistrates,  and  seemed  to  imagine  that  there  was  no 
audacity  of  crime  for  which  the  highest  bidder  could  not 
purchase  impunity.  Consequently  no  sooner  had  the  com- 
missioners of  the  Republic  returned  to  Italy,  than  he  once 
more  armed  and  invaded  the  territory  of  his  cousin,  who, 
first  sending  deputies  to  beseech  the  speedy  aid  of  Rome, 
took  the  field  unwilUngly  against  his  able  and  unscrupulous 
opponent. 

The  two  armies  met  at  night-fall,  near  the  sea  shore,  not 
far  from  the  city  of  Cirta,  now  Constantina,  which  cost  the 
French  so  much  time  and  toil  and  blood  in  the  outset  of 


THE    SIEGE.  277 

their  Algerian  conquest,  and,  as  the  day  was  too  far  advanced 
for  immediate  action,  encamped  on  the  ground  they  occupied, 
in  sight  each  of  the  other's  outposts.  But  when  the  night 
was  well  nigh  spent,  before  the  skies  had  begun  to  glimmer 
with  grey,  Jugurtha  surprized  the  camp,  and  either  cut  down 
or  utterly  dispersed  the  troops  of  Adherbal,  before  they 
had  shaken  off  the  heaviness  of  sleep,  so  that  they  never  again 
rallied.  Adherbal  himself  escaped  with  a  handful  of  horse 
to  Cirta,  so  quickly  pursued  that,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
multitude  of  Roman  citizens  and  Italian  traders  within  the 
fortress,  who  manned  the  walls  and  beat  off  the  Numidians, 
the  war  between  the  two  kings  would  have  been  begun  and 
ended  in  the  same  day.  Nothing  frustrated  by  this  repulse, 
however,  he  laid  close  siege  to  the  place,  hoping  to  anticipate 
the  arrival  of  the  Roman  deputies,  who,  he  well  knew,  would 
be  dispatched  so  soon  as  the  news  of  his  proceedings  should 
reach  the  city. 

The  envoys  arrived,  before  he  had  succeeded  in  his  object, 
with  instructions  to  see  both  the  kings  and  to  order  them  on 
pain  of  the  high  displeasure  of  the  Roman  people  to  lay 
down  their  arms  and  submit  their  differences  to  the  Senate. 
To  Adherbal,  who  was  closely  blockaded  in  his  walls,  they 
were  allowed  no  access.  From  Jugurtha  they  obtained  no 
satisfaction,  but  only  vague  expressions  of  his  respect  for  the 
Senate,  indefinite  charges  of  treachery  against  his  cousin, 
and  promises  to  send  an  embassy  with  full  power  to  treat  on 
all  matters  to  the  city.  And  no  sooner  did  he  believe  them 
to  have  left  Africa  than  he  again  pressed  the  siege,  and 
straitened  the  blockade  of  the  fortress,  in  itself  almost 
impregnable.  Reduced  to  the  last  extremity,  and  knowing 
his  garrison  to  be  almost  devoid  of  provisions,  Adherbal 
with  great  difficulty  procured  two  persons,  who  should  make 
their  way  through  the  lines  and  convey  letters  to  Rome  ; 


2^8  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

which  in  fact  arrived  there  safely,  were  read  before  a  crowded 
Senate,  and  created  so  much  excitement  and  indignation  that 
it  was  no  easy  matter  for  the  bribed  fautors  and  partizans  of 
the  ISFumidian  to  prevent  the  immediate  declaration  of  war, 
and  despatch  of  an  army  to  the  aid  of  his  injured  kinsman. 

They  prevailed,  however,  and  in  lieu  of  an  army,  the 
regum  ultima  ratio,  three  arbiters  were  again  despatched,  but 
now  men  of  weight,  dignity  and  force,  with  Scaurus  at  their 
head,  who  made  such  speed  to  reach  the  seat  of  action  that 
they  landed  in  TJtica,  on  the  third  day  after  their  leaving 
Rome,  and  summoned  Jugurtha  to  repair  forthwith  into  the 
province  to  justify  his  proceedings. 

Not  daring,  as  yet,  openly  to  defy  the  Senate,  yet  resolute 
not  to  give  up  his  favorite  project,  he  made  one  desperate 
attempt  to  storm  the  place,  which  failing,  he  proceeded  with 
a  small  body-guard  to  the  province,  and  held  several  con- 
ferences with  Scaurus  and  the  envoys,  wherein  he  was 
threatened  with  the  instant  vengeance  of  Rome  in  case  of 
his  continuing  to  beleaguer  Cirta,  even  for  another  day. 

Undeterred  and  immovable,  however,  in  his  secret  purpose 
he  equivocated  and  played  fast  and  loose,  until,  after  wasting 
much  time  and  effecting  nothing,  this  second  embassy  returned 
to  Rome,  leaving  Jugurtha  ample  opportunity  to  complete 
his  designs.  One  point  he  had  gained  already  of  no  small 
weight,  for  during  their  protracted  conferences,  he  won 
over  Scaurus  by  his  extraordinary  donations,  who  having 
been,  when  most  of  his  party  were  already  corrupted,  the 
keenest  impugner  and  prosecutor  of  the  king,  was  henceforth 
his  closest  confederate  and  counsellor  in  all  his  secret 
schemes. 

It  was  not  long  ere  the  news  of  the  failure  of  this  second 
embassy  reached  Cirta;  and  at  once  the  Italian  and  Roman 
citizens  of  the  garrison,  not  dreaming  that  the  barbarian 


DEATH    OF    ADHERBAL.  2T9 

could  possibly  dare  so  much  against  the  majesty  of  the 
Roman  peoJDle  as  to  harm  their  persons,  compelled  Adherbal 
to  surrender,  on  promise  that  his  life  should  be  spared. 
And  he,  having  no  other  choice,  though  there  was  nothing 
on  which  he  set  less  reliance  than  the  faith  of  his  kinsman, 
surrendered,  only  to  be  put  to  death,  with  every  refinement 
of  cruelty,  by  protracted  tortures.  Nor  did  his  advisers 
fare  better,  for  no  sooner  were  the  gates  opened,  than  every 
adult  capable  of  bearing  arms,  Numidian  or  Roman  trader 
indiscriminately,  was  slaughtered  by  the  soldiers  of  the  desert, 
and  the  place  given  up  to  sack  and  pillage. 

Of  all  Jugurtha's  actions,  this  is  to  me  the  strangest  and 
most  inscrutable,  since  his  end  was  sufficiently  gained  by  the 
simple  destruction  of  his  rival,  nor  can  any  reason  be  imagined 
why  he  should  have  needlessly  provoked  the  farther  indigna- 
tion of  the  proud  and  fierce  Republic,  by  the  wanton  tor- 
ture of  their  client,  and  the  violation  of  the  sacred  character 
of  Roman  citizen.  The  apology  of  M.  Michelet  for  this  act, 
as  if  ''  he  considered  the  anti-national  candidate  an  usurper," 
cannot,  as  I  have  above  demonstrated,  be  admitted.  Nor  is 
it  shown  by  anything  which  has  up  to  this  time  appeared  in 
History,  that  Adherbal,  whose  adherents  fought  in  his  behalf 
faithfully  if  feebly,  was  regarded  as  the  anti-national  candi- 
date. Still  less  is  it  proved,  as  that  celebrated  historian 
asserts,  that  "  his  hatred  led  him  to  confound  Rome  with 
Adherbal,"  since  it  is  perfectly  evident  that  he  still  confided 
in  his  ability  to  bribe  the  magistrates  and  purchase  the 
friendship  of  Rome. 

It  must  have  been,  either  a  deed  of  mere  frenzy,  such  as 
a  barbarian  impotent  to  command  his  passions  might  commit 
during  a  passing  gust  of  fury,  soon  to  be  repented,  or  a  deep 
laifl  stroke  of  policy,  whereby  to  render  all  his  nation  as 
guilty  as  himself  of  Roman  blood,  so  as  to  have  them  des- 


280  CAIUS   MARIUS. 

perate  of  pardon  to  the  end,  in  case  his  plans  should  fail  for 
buying  bodily  the  whole  corrupt  republic — and  to  me  the 
latter  seems  the  more  probable  supposition,  in  view  of  the 
character  and  subtle  genius  of  the  man. 

This  last  outrage  was  the  drop  which  overflowed  the  cup 
of  popular  indignation,  nor  could  the  friends  of  the  usurper 
prevent  the  dismissal  of  Jugurtha^s  embassy  unheard,  or  the 
despatch  of  a  consular  army  under  Calpurnius  Bestia,  by 
way  of  Sicily  into  Numidia. 

This  occurred  in  the  year  of  Rome  643,  B.  C.  Ill,  which 
is  the  date  at  which  commenced  the  Jugurthine  war,  termi- 
nated only  after  five  years'  hard  fighting,  to  the  lasting  dis- 
grace of  Rome's  officers  and  armies,  by  the  great  soldier  who 
is  the  subject  of  the  present  memoir.  It  is  remarkable  that, 
almost  simultaneously,  with  the  commencement  of  the  con- 
test between  the  African  princes,  which  led  to  this  his  first 
war,  the  Teutons  and  Cimbri,  who  furnished  him  his  greatest 
triumph,  appeared  on  the  northern  threshold  of  Italy,  and 
came  in  contact  with  the  Romans  on  the  reverse  of  the 
Carnian  Alps.     But  of  this  hereafter. 

On  his  arrival  in  Numidia,  Bestia  commenced  his  opera- 
tions with  some  vigor,  took  a  considerable  number  of  captives 
and  a  few  towns,  when  Jugurtha  proposed  to  treat — with 
Jugurtha  to  treat  was  to  seek  occasion  for  corrupting  his 
enemy,  and  by  aid  of  Scaurus,  one  of  the  consul's  legates, 
he  easily  succeeded  in  the  present  instance.  His  bribes  were 
immense,  and  a  treaty  was  concluded,  for  the  eyes  of  the 
public,  by  which  Jugurtha  surrendered  himself,  with  his  army, 
elephants  and  treasures  a  prisoner  at  discretion — ^but  apart 
from  this,  and  overruling  it,  was  a  secret  compact  guaranteed 
by  the  consul,  whereby  liberty,  life  and  the  sovereignty  of 
Numidia  were  secured  to  the  usurper.  Thirty  elephants, 
vast  numbers  of  horses  and  cattle,  and  a  small  quantity  of 


JUGURTHA   IN   ROME.  281 

money  was  given  up,  for  the  sake  of  form,  an  armistice  was 
proclaimed,  and  Bestia  returned  to  Kome  to  hold  the  consular 
elections. 

But  this  last  act  of  infamy  was  too  barefaced,  and  the 
plebeian  indignation  waxed  so  furious,  that  the  Senate  were 
overawed  and  dare  not  resist  the  clamor  for  inquiry  raised 
by  the  whole  popular  party  and  enforced  by  the  impetuous 
eloquence  of  the  tribune  Memmius.  Jugurtha  was  cited  to 
appear  at  Rome,  as  a  witness  to  the  corruptions  which  had 
been  practised  in  Africa,  under  a  written  pledge  and  safe 
conduct  from  the  Senate,  and,  what  he  valued  yet  more 
highly,  the  plighted  faith  of  Longinus  Cassius,  who  was  sent 
to  summon  him. 

Not  the  least  strange  or  romantic  incident  in  this  man^s 
strange  and  romantic  career,  is  that,  steeped  to  the  lips  as 
he  was  in  blood  of  Romans,  he  had  yet  the  effrontery,  and 
the  confidence  in  his  ability,  to  carry  all  before  him  by  cor- 
ruption, to  obey  the  citation,  and  actually  appeared  in  the 
city,  which  no  man  had  ever  so  defied  and  outraged,  in  the 
garb  indeed  and  with  the  demeanor  of  a  suppUant,  but  with 
the  heart  of  a  triumphant  king.  Immediately  on  his  arrival 
he  secured  the  advocacy  of  the  shameless  tribune  Caius 
Boebius,  and  fearlessly  appeared  in  the  Senate,  which  sat 
with  open  doors,  that  all  the  people  who  thronged  the  vesti- 
bule and  every  approach  to  the  temple,  might  hear  the 
proceedings. 

But  when  Memmius  opened  the  case  and  produced  Jugur- 
tha as  his  witness,  Caius  Boebius  interposed  his  sacred  tribu- 
nitial  veto,  ordered  the  king  to  hold  his  peace,  and,  in  spite 
of  the  clamors  and  fury  of  the  indignant  multitude,  by  dint 
of  dauntless  impudence  finally  put  an  end  to  the  proceedings. 
Shortly  afterward,  while  Jugurtha  was  yet  detained  in  Rome, 
there  appeared  yet  a  new  claimant  of  the  throne,  in  the  per- 


282  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

son  of  one  Massiva,  son  of  Gulussa,  a  younger  but  legitimate 
son  of  Massinissa;  and  his  proceedings  appeared  so  dangerous 
to  the  usurper  that  he  procured  his  assassination,  even  within 
the  walls  of  Rome  by  the  intermediacy  of  his  confidant 
Bomilcar.  So  recklessly  and  openly  was  this  crime  com- 
mitted, that  the  agent  was  detected,  and,  his  master  procur- 
ing him  the  sureties  of  fifty  Roman  citizens,  to  whom  he 
bound  himself  to  make  good  their  losses,  instantly  absconded 
to  Africa.  The  agency  of  Jugurtha  was  not  to  be  doubted, 
but  his  privity  to  the  crime  could  not  be  proved,  and  his  safe 
conduct  covered  him.  Ordered  to  depart  from  Italy  within 
a  given  time,  he  turned  back,  after  he  had  passed  the  gates, 
and  gazed  on  the  city  long  in  silence.  ''  A  city  to  be  bought," 
he  said,  "  if  she  might  find  a  buyer." 

He  entered  that  city  once  again,  when  five  years  had 
passed,  to  die ;  but  three  centuries  had  elapsed  before  his 
words  were  proved  prophetic,  when  Rome  was  actually  for 
sale  to  the  highest  bidder,  and  found  a  buyer  in  Didius 
julianus. 

The  year  110,  B.C.,  was  far  advanced  before  the  consul 
Spurius  Albinus,  who  succeeded  Bestia,  arrived  with  reinforce- 
ments to  the  army  in  Numidia  ;  and  by  his  customary  arti- 
fices, offers  to  treat,  promises  to  surrender,  and  probably  by 
bribes  also,  Jugurtha  contrived  to  protract  matters  without 
the  drawing  of  a  sword,  until  the  time  came  round  when  the 
consul  must  return  to  preside  at  the  Comitia.  During  his 
absence,  which  was  prolonged  by  the  dissensions  of  the 
tribunes  in  the  city,  taking  advantage  of  the  inconsiderate 
rashness  of  his  lieutenant,  Aulus  Albinus,  who  thought  to 
win  the  honor  of  concluding  the  war  at  a  blow,  the  desert 
warrior  drew  him  into  an  ambuscade,  forced  him  to  surrender 
at  discretion,  passed  his  army  under  the  yoke — a  disgrace 
which  had  not  befallen  a  Roman  army  since  the  catastro- 


METELLUS    IN   AFRICA.  283 

phe,  above  two  centuries  before,  in  the  Caudine  forks — and 
compelled  him  to  evacuate  Numidia  within  ten  days. 

The  grief  and  rage  in  Rome,  on  the  receipt  of  these 
tidings,  is  more  easily  imagined  than  described.  The  armis- 
tice concluded  with  Marius  was  denounced,  Aulus  Albinus 
was  utterly  disgraced  and  ruined,  and  Quintus  Caecilius 
Metellus,  a  noble  of  the  highest  character  for  integrity  and 
capacity,  who  was  elected  consul  with  Silanus,  received 
Numidia,  with  the  Jugurthine  war,  for  his  province. 

In  the  year  of  the  city  645,  B.  C.  109,  with  strong  rein- 
forcements and  Caius  Marius  as  his  lieutenant,  this  able 
soldier  landed  in  Numidia,  and,  for  the  first  time  since  its 
commencement,  the  war  was  prosecuted  with  ability  and 
vigor.  After  some  months  well  spent  in  reorganizing  and 
redisciplining  the  army,  the  physique  and  morale  of  which 
were  entirely  broken,  Metellus  took  the  field,  wasting  the 
country  far  and  wide,  with  fire  and  sword,  and  keeping  him- 
self continually  on  his  guard.  When  Jugurtha  attempted 
tricks  and  treasons,  he  frustrated  him  at  his  own  weapons, 
tampered  with  his  envoys,  and  offered  them  such  a  price  for 
the  delivery  of  their  master,  dead  or  alive,  that  the  wily 
Numidian  found  himself,  for  once,  outdone  in  treason,  and 
desisted.  A  few  days  afterward,  having  garrisoned  Yaga,  a 
large  inland  town,  the  Numidian  having  ambushed  him  on 
his  line  of  march  near  the  river  Muthul,  he  fought  a  pitched 
battle  at  great  disadvantage,  but  by  his  own  masterly  dispo- 
sitions and  the  able  support  of  his  lieutenant  Marius, 
defeated  the  enemy  with  loss,  and  totally  dispersed  his  army. 
Thereafter  he  proceeded  through  the  interior,  devastating  the 
open  fields,  burning  the  cities,  putting  all  the  adult  males  to 
the  sword,  while  Jugurtha,  indefatigable  and  indomitable 
as  Abd  el  Kader,  or  Hyder  Ah,  those  greatest  masters  in 
desultory  equestilan  warfare,  hung  on   their  flanks,  inter- 


284  CAIUS   MARIUS. 

rupted  their  communications,  threatened  them  at  all  points^ 
invisible  but  ever  near,  realizing  the  boast  of  the  tyrant  of 
the  Carnatic  to  his  English  assailants,  *'  that  they  should  not 
know  his  whereabout*  once  in  a  month,  but  that  he  would 
hear  of  theirs  at  every  drum-beat." 

At  length,  weary  of  this  delusory  and  unsatisfactory 
warfare,  the  consul  resolved  to  bring  the  war  to  a  close  by 
the  reduction  of  all  the  enemy^s  cities,  and  therefore  laid 
siege  to  Zama,  the  largest  and  richest  town  of  Numidia,  and 
principal  treasury  of  the  king.  He  pressed  the  assault 
strenuously  and  fiercely,  resolute  to  win  it  by  escalade,  sap 
or  storm,  when  suddenly  Jugurtha,  coming  up  unforseen,  fell 
on  the  Roman  camps,  while  the  legions  were  attacking  the 
place,  and  all  but  carried  them,  and  so  desperate  and  so  per- 
sistent w^as  his  attack,  that  night,  rather  than  the  prowess  of 
the  Romans,  closed  the  affair  of  the  day ;  and  foiled,  rather  than 
repulsed,  the  indomitable  prince  drew  off  his  almost  victorious 
squadrons,  only  to  encamp  close  by  the  lines  of  the  Romans, 
and  to  recommence  the  battle  on  the  following  morning,  with 
the  like  near  hope  of  victory,  and  failure  of  entire  success. 
The  battle  lasted  all  day  long,  with  fluctuating  fortunes,  the 
Romans  assaulting  the  city  on  one  side,  while  they  resisted 
from  without  the  furious  and  sustained  charges  of  the  king, 
who  poured  his  horse  and  foot  on  them,  pell  mell,  with  con- 
stancy never  before  displayed  by  Numidians  in  array  of 
battle.  As  before,  night  alone  terminated  the  indecisive 
conflict.  Neither  army  was  victorious  in  the  action,  neither 
was  worsted  ;  but  with  Jugurtha,  clearly  remained  the  honor, 
as  did  in  fact  the  success,  of  the  day  ;  for  his  object  was  the 
relief  of  Zama,  and  that  object  he  gained. 

Metellus    drew  off  his  army,  weakened   and  dispirited, 
from  the   trenches,  and  finding  that  his   able  and  active 
*  Alison,  Hist.  Europe,  111,  132.  * 


TREASON   TO   TREASON.  285 

antagonist  would  fight  him  only  desultorily,  with  his  horse, 
after  his  own  fashion,  or  on  ground  and  at  times  of  his  own 
choosing,  and  moreover,  that  the  season  was  drawing  to  a 
close,  dispersed  his  army  into  winter  quarters,  in  the  towns 
which  had  been  won  from  the  king.  Thereafter,  since  arms 
had  availed  hun  little,  he  had  recourse  to  intrigue  and  cor- 
ruption ;  and  these  weapons  served  him  better  than  the  more 
legitimate  means  of  warfare. 

By  tampering  with  Bomilcar,  Jugurtha^s  agent  in  the 
murder  of  Massiva,  and  operating  now  on  his  apprehensions, 
now  on  his  cupidity,  by  promises  of  indemnity  at  the  close 
of  the  war,  and  the  offer  of  vast  sums  for  the  betrayal  of 
his  lord  and  king,  dead  or  alive,  into  the  hands  of  the 
Romans,  he  induced  the  miscreant  to  undertake  the  office  of 
infamy. 

He,  having  influence  on  Jugurtha's  mind,  as  his  chief 
counsellor  and  most  trusted  friend,  by  instilling  into  it  suspicions 
as  to  the  faith  of  the  army,  the  fealty  of  his  people,  and  the 
loyalty  of  his  personal  attendants,  worked  him  at  length  to 
treat  for  peace  with  the  consul. 

For  Metellus,  the  overture  was  all  sufficient.  Summoning, 
to  a  council  of  war,  all  of  senatorial  rank  from  winter 
quarters,  he  gave  audience  to  the  king's  envoys,  and  rendered 
them  this  answer,  that  if  the  king  desired  peace  of  the 
Romans,  he  must  first  give  them  proof  of  his  sincerity.  By 
this  transparent  fraud,  the  barbarian,  less  wily  than  the  hon- 
est Roman,  was  induced  to  surrender  all  his  elephants,  horses, 
arms,  and  two  hundred  thousand  pounds'  weight  of  silver ; 
which  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  he  would  have  done,  unless 
upon  conditions  ;  and  then,  when  it  was  understood  that  he 
was  incapable  of  further  resistance,  he  was  commanded  to 
come  in  and  surrender  himself  at  discretion. 

The  same  base  deception,  atrocious  breach  of  national 


22 OO  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

integrity  and  honor,  of  which  Scipio,  the  organ  of  the 
Roman  aristocracy,  had  been  guilty  toward  Carthage,  was 
here  attempted. 

But  like  Carthage,  cheated,  disarmed,  betrayed,  defence- 
less, the  desert-born  refused  to  resign  his  liberty,  resolute  to 
deserve,  if  he  might  not  gain,  success. 

So  the  Senate  decreed  a  thanksgiving  to  the  gods,  and 
continued  Metellus  as  proconsul,  in  command  of  the  Numi- 
dian  war  and  province. 

About  this  time,  Marius,  whose  fierce  ambition  and  bitter 
hatred  of  the  nobles  grew  daily — the  former  stimulated, 
probably,  by  the  growth  of  his  renown,  the  latter  irritated  by 
the  scornful  deportment  of  his  chief,  Metellus — was  in 
execution  of  his  official  duties  at  Utica,  where  he  fell  in 
with  a  certain  diviner  of  future  events  ;  who  so  strenuously 
assured  him  that  he  should  succeed  in  his  next  enterprise,  be 
it  what  it  might,  that  he,  understanding  his  canvass  for  the 
consulship  to  be  intended,  determined  to  ojffer  himself  a  can- 
didate^ 

It  appears  that  this  strangely  constituted  man,  deaf,  as  he 
showed  himself,  in  latter  times,  to  any  sentiment  of  humanity 
or  mercy,  to  any  reverence  for  aught  natural  or  divine,  was 
yet  abjectly  superstitious,  relying  implicitly  on  the  tricks 
and  juggleries  of  necromantic  and  haruspical  diviners,  and  in 
his  later  days,  carrying  about  with  him  a  Syrian,  or  perhaps 
Jewish,  witch  or  sorceress,  named  Martha,  to  whose  guidance 
he  in  a  great  measure  committed  his  actions. 

By  the  promises  of  this  person,  by  the  inflammatory  and 
seditious  instigation  of  the  trading  equites  and  revenue- 
farmers  of  Utica,  who  finding  their  lucrative  operations 
injured  by  the  existing  war,  were  desirous  to  terminate  it  at 
all  hazards — above  all,  perhaps,  by  a  sneering  reply  of 
Metellus  to  his  request  for  leave  of  absaoce,  in  order  to  can- 


ELECTED    CONSUL.  28^ 

vass  for  the  first  magistracy  of  the  Republic,  he  was  in- 
flamed to  such  a  degree  of  confidence,  that  he  resigned  his 
commission  as  legate  to  the  consul,  and  repaired  to  Rome, 
after  a  treacherous  attempt  to  procure  Jugurtha^s  surrender 
or  slaughter  at  the  hands  of  one  Gauda,  aided  by  Nabdalsa 
and  Bomilcar. 

This  Gauda,  urged  by  hopes  of  succeeding  to  Jugurtha^s 
throne,  as  well  as  the  knights  and  base  traffickers  of  the  pro- 
vince, and  the  turbulent  and  disaffected  of  the  soldiery, 
was  induced  to  write  most  urgently  to  his  friends  and 
partizans  in  Rome,  in  flagrant  censure  of  Metellus  and  his 
conduct  during  the  war,  and  to  assert  roundly  that  with  half 
the  army,  now  on  foot,  Marius  would  bring  the  war  to  a 
glorious  close  in  a  single  campaign,  which  had  languished 
four  years  under  Metellus  and  his  predecessors. 

At  the  same  time  the  town  of  Yaga,  which  had  been 
garrisoned  by  Metellus  in  the  previous  year,  revolted,  and 
put  its  garrison  and  all  the  Italian  residents  to  the  sword, 
not  without  suspicion  of  treachery  on  the  part  of  the  Latin 
governor,  Titus  Turpilius  Silanus,  who  only  escaped  the 
daggers  of  the  Numidians,  to  die  under  the  rods  and  axes 
of  the  Roman  lictors. 

This  occurrence  added,  for  the  moment,  to  the  outcry 
against  the  aristocracy ;  and  the  rabble,  having  gained  a 
temporary  ascendancy  over  the  nobles,  who  were  utterly 
depressed  and  downcast  by  the  passage  of  the  Manilian 
law,  Marius,  by  the  basest  and  most  flagitious  appeals  to  the 
prejudices,  the  violences,  and  the  fury  of  the  mob,  secured 
his  election  and  the  province,  to  which  he  aspired. 

In  the  meantime,  during  his  absence  from  the  seat  of  war, 
Metellus  had  pressed  matters  to  the  utnjost.  He  had  made 
himself  master  of  Yaga,  by  a  stratagem,  through  which  he 
led  the  inhabitants  to  mistake  his  forces  for  those  of  the 


288  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

king  ;  when  he  charged  them  home,  entered  the  gates  pell 
mell  with  the  fugitives,  and  punished  their  defection,  as  was 
usual  with  the  Romans,  when  victorious,  by  a  wholesale 
massacre. 

The  conspiracy  of  Bomilcar  and  Nabdalsa  had  been  dis- 
covered by  Jugurtha,  in  the  interim,  and  the  guilty  dealt 
withal,  as  their  guilt  merited  ;  but,  from  that  day  forth, 
Jugurtha's  fall  was  dated.  From  that  day  forth,  he  placed 
no  trust  in  man;  he  slept  not  over  two  nights  in  one  place, 
nor  often  one,  without  a  change  of  bed  and  chamber.  He 
wore  secret  armor,  he  scarce  dared  eat,  or  drink,  for  fear  of 
secret  poison.  His  mind,  like  the  iron  soul  of  the  great 
English  Protector,  broke  down  before  the  never-absent  men- 
ace of  private  assassination.  And  now,  once  more,  finding 
that  his  own  arms  were  turned  against  himself,  and  that  he 
was  yet  more  inferior  to  the  Romans  in  perfidy  and  murder, 
than  in  the  balanced  field  of  battle,  he  tried  the  chances  of 
an  openly  delivered  conflict  ;  fought  well  and  long  ;  but, 
after  half  winning  the  day,  as  he  had  ever  done,  where  he 
fought  in  person,  was  beaten  by  the  superior  constancy  and 
steadiness  of  the  legions.  Many  of  his  horses  and  arms, 
most  of  his  standards  were  taken  ;  but  he  lost  few  men  ; 
for  the  Numidians  never  involved  themselves  so  deeply  but 
that  they  could  easily  retreat ;  and  then,  the  knowledge  of 
the  ground  and  their  natural  agility  saved  them.  Thence 
he  fled  to  Thala,  one  of  his  royal-  cities,  his  principal  trea- 
sury, the  seat  of  his  harem  and  the  abode  of  the  kingly 
children,  situate  in  the  midst  of  difficult  and  dreadful  deserts, 
infested  by  wild  beasts  and  deadly  serpents,  and  at  fifty 
miles'  distance  from  the  nearest  water. 

Here,  at  length,  he  thought  himself  secure  ;  for  he  never 
deemed  it  possible  that  a  Roman  army,  with  its  ponderous 
infantry,  its  baggage  and  its  artillery,  could  traverse  such  a 


SIEGE    OF    THALA.  289 

waste  as  intervened;  never  doubted  that,  if  they  should 
attempt  it,  fatigue  and  thirst  would  do  the  work  of  the 
sword.  Metellus,  however,  by  pressing  all  the  cattle  of  the 
country  into  service,  and  loading  them  with  water  vessels, 
seized  from  all  dwellings,  far  and  near,  brought  his  men  to 
the  walls  in  safety  ;  when  rain  fell  in  such  abundance,  at  an 
unusual  season  of  the  year,  which  both  parties  attributed  to 
supernatural  influences  or  to  the  destiny  of  Rome,  as  to  ren- 
der their  farther  operations  easy. 

Jugurtha  escaped  from  the  walls,  by  night,  with  his  chil- 
dren and  treasures,  and  thenceforth  led  a  nomad  life,  never 
halting  in  one  place  for  above  a  single  day  and  night,  lodg- 
ing in  the  black  tents  of  his  tribe,  and  hoping  to  frustrate 
treason  by  rapidity  of  movement.  He,  who  had  been  faith- 
ful to  no  man,  had  not  looked,  it  would  seem,  to  find  all 
men  unfaithful.  It  was  the  certain  termination,  but  not  for 
that  the  less  bitter,  of  his  false  career.  Forty  days  after  he 
had  fled,  the  citizens  of  Thala  held  out  manfully  ;  but,  when 
Metellus  had  completed  his  lines  of  circumvallation,  when 
he  had  raised  a  bank,  on  which  to  bring  up  his  engines 
against  their  walls,  and  was  on  the  point  of  storming  the 
place,  the  Roman  deserters,  who  were  the  strength  of  the 
defence,  destroyed  all  the  valuables,  and  consumed  them- 
selves with  the  royal  treasures,  in  voluntary  conflagration. 
The  city  suffered  the  extremities  of  sword  and  fire,  and 
Roman  clemency  spared  no  living  thing,  human  nor  brute, 
of  the  devoted  fortress. 

After  the  capture  and  destruction  of  this  place,  having  no 
longer  any  army  or  fortified  town,  which  he  could  hope  to 
defend,  Jugurtha  retired  into  the  country  of  the  Gsetulians — 
a  race  of  men  entirely  savage  and  ignorant  of  the  very  name 
of  the  Romans — corresponding  to  the  modern  regions  of 
Belad  el  Jerid,  and  Beni  Mezzah,  south  of  the  Atlas  chains, 
13 


2VU  CAIUS   MARIUS. 

and  extending  over  all  the  oases  of  the  Great  Desert,  even 
to  the  land  of  the  true  negroes. 

These  Gsetulians,  it  is  probable,  differed  little,  if  at  all, 
from  the  Nomadic  Tuaricks,  and  perhaps  some  of  the  Ber- 
bers, who  occupy  the  deserts  and  slopes  of  the  Atlas,  to  the 
present  day,  from  time  almost  immemorial  ;  and  of  these, 
by  degrees  he  collected  vast  hordes  ;  reduced  them  into 
something  like  the  form,  if  not  the  discipline,  of  an  army  ; 
and,  having  induced  Bocchus,  king  of  Mauritania,  one  of 
whose  daughters  was  in  the  number  of  his  wives,  to  make 
common  cause  with  him,  advanced  once  again  to  try  his  for- 
tune with  the  sword.  It  is  remarkable  that  in  all  these 
campaigns,  these  victories  and  sieges,  the  Komans  had  pene- 
trated but  a  short  distance  from  the  borders  of  their  own 
province,  Zama  being  actually  within  its  confines,  and  neithei* 
Cirta,  nor  Thala,  the  last  boasted  victory  of  Metellus,  being 
above  three  degrees  distant  from  Carthage  itself ;  whence 
to  the  river  Mulucha,  or  Molochath,  the  frontier  between 
Numidia  and  Mauritania,  it  was  certainly  not  less  than  eight 
hundred  miles.  And  even  now,  at  the  close  of  the  fourth 
campaign,  it  was  still  on  Cirta,  in  which  Metellus  had  his 
quarters,  his  military  chest,  his  prisoners  and  his  booty,  that 
Jugurtha  made  his  present  demonstration,  in  conjunction  with 
his  late  allies. 

Metellus  was,  however,  aware,  when  the  confederate  kings 
marched  up  to  his  fortified  camp,  that  Marius  was  the  consul 
of  the  year,  and  of  the  province  ;  and  that,  by  gaining  a 
victory,  he  should  gain  glory  not  for  himself  but  for  his 
deadliest  enemy,  whose  election  had  already  wrung  bitter 
curses  from  his  tongue,  and  bitterer  tears  from  his  eyes, 
albeit  unused  to  weep.  He  therefore  gave  them  no  oppor- 
tunity of  fighting,  much  less  offered  them  battle,  but  had 
recourse  to  protracted  negotiations,  endeavoring  to   detach 


NEW   LEVIES    OF   MAKIUS.  291 

Bocchus  from  the  alliance,  but  taking  no  steps  to  bring 
the  war  to  a  close. 

He  was  now,  in  his  turn,  deprived  of  his  command,  which 
he  handed  over  to  Marius  ;  who  had  returned  more  arrogant 
and  insolent  than  ever,  as  one  who  had  succeeded  and  gained 
his  point  by  dint  of  that  very  insolence,  by  flattering  the 
passions  of  the  mob,  by  inveighing  against  the  culture  and 
accomplishments  of  the  nobles,  and  by  glorying  in  his  own 
sordid  and  brutal  ignorance.  He  brought  with  him  as  his 
legate,  Aulus  Manlius  and  new  levies,  something  greater 
than  he  was  entitled  to  raise  by  the  decree  which  he  had 
obtained.  But  in  raising  these  levies,  he  had  been  guilty  of 
a  breach  of  the  constitution,  a  treacherous,  calculated  crime, 
which  in  truth  more  than  one  cause,  perhaps  than  all  others 
united,  tended  to  overthrow  the  republic. 

Up  to  this  period,  from  the  earhest  ages,  it  had  been  only 
the  citizens  of  the  first  five,  property-taxed  classes,  who  had 
the  privilege  of  serving  in  the  legions — these  were  all  house- 
holders, men  of  family,  with  lands,  trades,  professions,  chil- 
dren, hereditary  rights  and  interests  in  the  state,  and  the 
strongest  inducements  to  maintain  the  commonwealth,  rather 
than  support  any  individual  chief  against  it.  Contrary  to 
law,  Marius  raised  his  reinforcements  entirely  from  the  pro- 
letarians, penniless,  houseless,  reckless  vagabonds,  to  whom 
the  camp  became  the  country,  and  the  will  of  their  com- 
mander the  orders  of  the  state. 

Up  to  this  period,  there  is  scarce  an  instance  of  a  Boman 
army  mutinying  against  its  general,  however  cruel  or 
obnoxious — not  one  of  a  Boman  army  abetting  its  officer  in 
treason  to  the  state.  While  the  legions  were  composed  of 
the  best  citizens  in  the  state,  who  looked  forward  to  a  return 
to  home,  opulence,  respect,  domestic  joys  and  civic  honors, 
such  an  event  was  impossible.     From  the  day  when  Marius 


292  CAIUS   MARIUS, 

levied  the  proletarian  class  into  the  legions,  treason  to  the 
state,  and  fidelity  to  the  individual  chief,  became  the  rule 
with  Koman  armies  ;  and  Julius  Caesar  only  consummated 
the  treason,  when  he  introduced  barbarian  cohorts  under  the 
desecrated  eagles. 

These  desperate  and  hard-handed  men,  however,  inured  to 
bear  all  hardships,  and  to  mock  at  all  dangers,  were  the 
stuff  whereof  to  make  soldiers,  if  not  patriots  ;  and  Marius 
was  of  the  metal  to  lead  such  ;  and  he  did  so,  if  brutally, 
bravely  and  victoriously.  So  soon  as  Publius  Kutilius  had 
surrendered  the  army  into  his  hands,  for  Metellus  shunned 
the  aspect  of  Marius,  unable  to  endure  the  sight  of  things, 
which  he  could  not  even  bear  to  hear  recited,  Marius  took 
the  field,  and  displayed  sagacity  and  resources  no  less  extra- 
ordinary, than  his  indefatigable  industry  and  vigor,  in  anti- 
cipating every  movement,  in  foreseeing  every  march,  in 
detecting  every  ambush,  of  the  kings.  He  beat  them  many 
times  in  skirmishes,  swooping  down  on  them  on  their  forays, 
when  driving  booty  from  the  lands  of  his  allies  ;  and,  at 
last,  defeated  Jugurtha  in  a  pitched  battle,  totally  routing 
and  disorganizing  his  army,  in  the  plains  nigh  Cirta.  But 
it  needed  not  his  discernment  to  perceive  that  to  beat  an 
enemy  in  pitched  battles,  who  lost  nothing  but  a  few  arms 
and  standards,  whose  troops  dispersed,  like  radii  from  a 
centre,  rendering  pursuit  and  carnage  impossible,  and  rallied 
again  in  two  or  three  days,  at  a  hundred  miles'  distance,  as 
effectually  as  before,  was  to  do  nothing  toward  terminating 
the  war. 

To  take  and  hold  all  the  towns,  to  occupy  the  whole  face 
of  the  country,  until  such  time  as  the  indomitable  chief 
should  be  captured  or  slain — this  was  the  only  plan  that 
offered  ought  of  success,  and  to  this  he  applied  himself,  with 
the  stern  vigor  which  ensures  fortunate  results.     If  Metel- 


MARCH   TO    THALA.  293 

lus  had  taken  Thala  with  great  difficulty  and  great  glory,  he 
must  take  Cafsa,  in  all  respects  a  more  arduous  and  perilous 
undertaking.  For  if  Thala  lay  far  in  the  bosom  of  arid 
solitudes,  Cafsa,  was  situate  a  hundred  miles  deeper  in  tlie 
desert ;  and,  whereas  the  former  city  had  many  living 
springs  around  it,  when  the  burning  sands,  in  the  midst  of 
which  it  stood,  were  passed,  the  latter  had  but  one,  within 
the  walls,  by  which  the  inhabitants  were  supplied;  so  that  a 
besieging  army  must  depend  solely  on  the  water  skins  it 
brought  with  it,  and  either  take  the  place  by  a  coujp  de  main^ 
or  fail  utterly,  and  probably  perish  in  retreating.  But 
Marius  was  equal  to  the  emergency.  Without  suffering  a 
hint  to  transpire  of  the  drift  of  his  expedition,  he  marched 
suddenly  with  an  abundance  of  sheep  and  cattle,  which  were 
slaughtered  daily  for  the  men,  and  their  hides  instantly  con- 
verted into  water  skins.  On  the  sixth  day  of  their  march, 
when  they  arrived  at  the  last  river  they  should  see,  he  halted 
all  day  ;  saw  that  every  skin  was  filled  ;  abandoned  all  his 
baggage ;  loaded  both  men  and  beasts  with  the  precious 
water  ;  and  marched  all  night,  halting  before  day-break  in 
a  hollow  dell  among  hills,  where  his  force  was  entirely  con- 
cealed. He  did  the  same  on  the  second  day ;  and  before 
dawn  on  the  third,  reached  a  spot  among  the  sand-hills, 
within  two  miles  of  the  city-gates,  whence  he  could  observe* 
all,  himself  unobserved.  As  soon-  as  it  was  day-light,  sus- 
pecting nothing  less  than  the  vicinity  of  an  enemy,  the  in- 
habitants issued  from  the  walls  and  scattered  over  the  coun- 
try, intent  on  their  daily  business.  Then  instantly  from  his 
ambush,  Marius  launched  all  his  cavalry  and  light  troops, 
who  speedily  beset  the  gates,  shutting  out  the  better  part  of 
the  defenders,  while  he  followed  leisurely  in  person  with  the 
legions,  keeping  his  men  well  in  hand,  and  suffering  none  to 
leave  the  ranks  for  plunder.     Surprised  and  bereft  of  half 


294  CAIUS   MARIUS. 

their  forces  by  the  suddenness  of  the  attack,  the  wretched 
inhabitants  had  nothing  but  to  surrender  at  discretion,  and 
bitterly  had  they  cause  to  rue  it. 

For  with  a  fiendish  cruelty,  characteristic  of  the  man,  no 
less  than  of  the  nation,  justified  by  the  tyrants'  plea,  neces- 
sity, the  city  was  burnt  to  the  ground,  every  adult  inhabitant 
was  put  to  the  sword,  all  the  rest,  old  and  young,  male  and 
female,  were  sold  into  slavery,  and  everything  they  had  pos- 
sessed was  divided  as  prey  among  the  soldiers.  "  This  atro- 
cious deed,"  says  Sallust,*  ''contrary  to  the  rules  of  war, 
was  not  committed  through  wickedness  or  avarice  on  the 
part  of  the  consul,  but  because  the  place  was  important  to 
Jugurtha,  difficult  of  access  to  us,  the  inhabitants  fickle, 
having  once  broken  their  faith,  incapable  of  constraint  either 
by  fear  or  kindness." 

Napoleon's  plea,  to  the  letter,  for  the  cold-blooded  mas- 
sacre of  the  four  thousand  Albanians  and  Arnaouts  at 
Jaffa.f  "  We  are  in  the  desert  ;  we  cannot  keep  them  pris- 
oners and  feed  them  ;  they  have  broken  parole  before  ;  if 
we  spare  them,  we  shall  but  have  to  conquer  them  again," 
So  he  shot  them  all.  'Not  from  cruelty  or  thirst  of  blood, 
but  from  necessiiy,  the  palliative  and  apology  of  more  cruelty 
and  crime,  than  called  down  heavenly  vengeance  upon  the 
^cities  of  the  plain. 

After  this  barbarous,  and  to  his  own  men,  all  but  blood- 
less victory,  Marius  attacked,  one  by  one,  all  the  fortified 
towns  of  the  district.  A  few  resisted,  and  were  stormed  ; 
the  most  were  deserted  by  their  panic  stricken  garrisons, 
terrified  by  the  fate  of  Cafsa.  But  to  surrender  availed  the 
wretched  inhabitants  no  more  than  to  resist  ;  in  either  case 
alike  their  dwellings  were  given  up  to  the  torch,  their  per- 
sons, wherever  found  or  captured,  to  the  sword. 

♦  Sallust,  Bell.  Jug.  91. 

t  Alison  I.  520. 


THE    SNAIL-GATHERER.  295 

At  this  stage  of  the  war,  Marius  had  penetrated  farther 
into  the  country  than  any  Roman  leader  at  any  previous 
date,  having  now  advanced  the  eagles  so  far  as  to  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  river  Mulucha  or  Molochath,  which  was  the 
frontier  between  the  dominions  of  Jugurtha  and  Bocchus 
the  Mauritanian.  In  the  midst  of  these  arid  and  burning 
solitudes,  constituting  what  is  now  known  as  the  desert  of 
Angad,  there  stood  a  precipitous  isolated  rock,  on  which  had 
been  erected  a  fortified  burgh  and  citadel,  reputed  impreg- 
nable, which  contained  the  last  royal  hoards  of  treasure, 
and  was  itself  the  last  stronghold  of  the  unhappy  king. 

To  this  place,  not  without  incurring  the  charge  of  incon- 
siderate rashness  and  vain  ambition,  Marius  laid  siege  ;  and 
so  strong  were  the  natural  defences  of  the  place,  and  so 
desperately  were  they  maintained,  that,  having  failed  in 
repeated  attacks,  and  lost  many  of  his  best  men,  to  the 
serious  damage  of  his  credit,  he  was  on  the  eve  of  abandon- 
ing the  undertaking,  when  one  of  those  accidents,  which  so 
often  change  the  whole  aspect  of  events  in  warfare,  convert- 
ed his  perilous  position  into  a  glorious  triumph. 

A  straggler  from  one  of  the  auxiliary  Ligurian  cohorts, 
who  had  passed  round  to  the  rear  of  the  rocky  mount,  on 
the  front  of  which  the  fortress  stood,  in  search  of  water, 
having  discovered  many  snails,  in  those  days  esteemed  a  del- 
icate article  of  food,  crawling  among  the  mossy  crags, 
began  to  gather  them  ;  and  so,  as  he  found  them  more  and 
more  numerous  as  he  proceeded,  began  to  climb  higher 
and  higher  in  pursuit  of  them,  until  he  had  arrived 
at  such  an  elevation  above  the  plain,  that  he  conceived  an 
idea  of  turning  his  ascent  to  something  of  greater  advantage 
than  mere  snail  gathering.  So  he  persisted,  unobserved, 
until  he  had  attained  a  point,  whence  he  could  almost  look 
down  into  the  castle,  which,  deeming  attack  impossible  from 


296  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

that  quarter,  had  no  sentinels  or  outposts,  but  had  all  its  gar- 
rison on  the  alert  upon  the  ramparts  toward  Marius'  camp 
and  the  scene  of  action.  A  vast  evergreen  oak,  it  seems, 
grew  out  of  the  crevices  of  the  rocks,  and  shooting  upward, 
toward  the  light,  overhung  the  plateau  of  the  citadel,  and 
ajfforded  a  ladder  to  the  active  mountaineer,  by  which  he 
reached  a  station  whence  he  could  see  and  study  all  the 
defences  of  the  place,  and  facilities  of  his  own  position. 
Having  observed  all  that  he  might,  he  descended,  *''not 
rashly  as  he  had  mounted,  but  trying  and  examining  all  the 
passes,"  and  went  straightway  to  Marius,  to  whom  he  de- 
scribed all  that  he  had  seen,  suggested  an  attack,  or  diver- 
sion in  that  quarter,  and  volunteered  to  lead  a  detachment 
for  the  purpose.  Marius,  who  when  he  received  these 
tidings,  knew  not  what  method  to  adopt,  whereby  to  avoid 
the  disgrace  of  a  fruitless  siege  and  inglorious  retreat, 
eagerly  caught  at  the  opportunity  thus  afforded  him.  He 
sent  persons,  on  whom  he  could  depend,  to  test  the  truth  of 
the  Ligurian^s  tale  ;  and  these  reporting  that  some  one  had 
recently  ascended  the  rocks,  he  detached  five  trumpeters, 
with  four  chosen  centurions  as  a  support,  all  under  the  com- 
mand of  the  Ligurian,  with  orders  to  mount  as  silently  as 
possible  until  they  should  have  reached  the  commandiug 
position,  and  thence,  when  the  front  attack  should  be  at  its 
height,  to  sound  the  charge  at  the  highest  pitch  of  their 
instruments  and  voices,  and  make  a  violent  demonstration  on 
the  rear. 

The  men  were  equipped  in  regard  both  to  agility  and 

silence,  with  leathern  bucklers  and  head-pieces  which  would 

neither  clang  nor  glitter,  and  were  barefooted,  to  climb  the 

better  over  the  slippery  moss  and  dripping  rocks,  than  in 

*  Sallust,  Bell.  Jug.  93. 


THE  ATTACK  BY  THE  REAR.  29 1 

the  heavy  clouted  shoes,  which  were  the  ordinary  wear  of 
the  Roman  soldier. 

The  plan  succeeded  from  point  to  point,  the  ascent  was 
made  successfully  in  spite  of  all  the  difficulties,  and  when 
Marius,  aware  of  their  good  fortune,  was  cheering  his  men  to 
the  closest  and  most  desperate  attack,  exposing  his  own  per- 
son and  omitting  nothing  which  might  tend  to  success,  this 
trifling  forlorn  hope  entered  the  empty  citadel,  the  whole 
garrison  of  which  had  flocked  to  the  lower  battlements,  and 
sounded  their  war  notes,  as  if  already  masters  of  the  place. 
A  sudden  panic  fell  on  the  defenders,  and  the  spirit  of  the 
Romans  rising  in  proportion  as  that  of  the  Numidians 
declined,  the  place  was  carried  by  escalade,  the  gates  were 
forced,  and  all  within  the  walls  were  given  up  to  plunder, 
indiscriminate  massacre  and  havoc. 

''  Thus  corrected  by  chance,"  says  Sallust,  "  the  temerity 
of  Marius  received  glory  instead  of  censure."  But  this  sen- 
tence is  too  sweeping;  for  of  all  other  mortal  matters,  war 
is  the  most  dependent  upon  chances.  If  all  strong  hill  forts 
were  to  be  held  by  leaders  as  impregnable,  because  generally 
so  reported,  no  places  would  be  attacked  or  taken.  The 
chance  of  turning  an  enemy,  by  the  flank  or  rear,  is  one  of 
the  most  probable  accidents  of  mountain  warfare  ;  and  the 
chance  of  so  carrying  this  strong  place  was,  in  all  likelihood, 
one  of  the  reasons  which  induced  Marius  to  assault  it, 
though  the  pecuUar  path  by  which  it  was  eventually  won 
was  discovered  only  by  the  curiosity  of  a  straggling  forager 
of  the  camp.  The  fact,  that  the  fortress  was  commanded 
by  a  loftier  position,  proves  that  it  was  7iot  impregnable,  and 
therefore  decides  the  point  that  Marius  was  not  to  blame  in 
laying  siege  to  it.  If  there  be  any  censure  just,  it  is  proba- 
bly this,  that  he  had  not  earlier  caused  the  position  to  be 
fully  reconnoitered  in  the  rear,  before  malcing  real  attacks  in 
13* 


298  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

front;  but  on  this  point  at  this  distance  of  time,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  decide ;  and  it  is  most  evident,  that,  while  the  per- 
sonal accessibility  of  Marius  to  information  from  the  lowest 
and  least  regarded  source,  can  scarcely  be  too  highly  praised 
as  a  fine  characteristic  of  a  great  captain,  his  celerity  in 
adopting,  vigor  in  prosecuting,  and  perfect  success  in  car- 
rying out  the  project,  prove  him  a  general  of  great  versatil- 
ity and  quickness  of  genius. 

At  this  period  of  the  war,  Marius^  quaestor  Lucius  Syila, 
who  had  been  left  at  Rome  to  complete  the  levies  of  the 
Latin  and  allied  cavalry,  arrived  at  the  camp  with  a  great 
body  of  horse.  This  man,  destined  hereafter  to  become  the 
great  rival  and  deadly  enemy  of  the  general,  under  whom 
he  now  commenced  his  career  of  arms,  had  led,  it  would 
appear,  up  to  this  time  a  life  of  luxury  and  dissipation, 
varied  only  by  application  to  letters,  in  which  he  was  a  dis- 
tinguished proficient,  equally  conversant  with  the  languages 
and  literature  of  Italy  and  Greece,  and  had  not  entered 
conspicuously  into  the  arena  of  politics.  He  was  a  member 
of  one  of  the  noblest  and  grandest  of  the  great  patrician 
houses,  the  famous  gens  Cornelia,  which  had  already  pro- 
duced so  many  good  and  eminent  citizens,  and  was  hereafter 
to  give  birth  to  several  of  the  most  odious  yet  illustrious 
monsters.  Of  this  family  had  come  Cossus,  the  slayer  of 
Lar  Tolumnius,  and,  after  Romulus,  the  first  who  bore  the 
spolia  opima  to  the  Capitol ;  of  it  no  less  than  twelve  distin- 
guished Scipios,  all  of  whom  had  deserved  well  of  their 
country  in  the  field  or  in  the  forum  ;  and  of  it  were  to  come 
a  Lentulus,  a  Cinna,  a  Catiline,  a  Dolabella,  in  addition  to 
the  great  man  now  entering  upon  the  stage  of  history.  He 
was  a  man  of  profound  learning,  mighty  spirit,  vast  ambi- 
tion, sedulous  in  his  attention  to  business,  though  addicted 
too  much  to  pleasure,  eloquent,  crafty,  versatile,  excellent  in 


NIGHT   ATTACK    OF   THE    KINGS.  299 

dissimulation,  easy  of  access  to  his  friends,  lavish  of  largess- 
es, equal  in  capacity  to  his  fortune,  which  was  so  wonder- 
fully great  and  constant,  that  men  doubted  whether  he  were 
more  able  or  more  fortunate  in  his  achievements. 

That  one  with  such  nobility  of  birth,  refinement  of  tastes, 
and  literary  acquirement  should  be  utterly  antagonistic,  to 
a  rude,  low-born,  brutal-mannered  person  of  ignoble  habits, 
ignorant,  and  glorying  in  his  ignorance,  is  not  surprising  ; 
and  though  in  this  war  he  did  good  service  to  his  chief,  in  it 
likewise,  arose  the  first  hostile  controversies,  which  soon 
grew  up  into  deathless  hatred,  and  racked  Rome  to  its 
entrails  with  intestine  brawls  and  battles.  Jugurtha  had  at 
this  time  lost  all  his  places  of  strength,  most  of  his  treasures, 
many  of  his  best  men,  not  a  few  slain  by  his  own  suspicious 
fury,  and  had  no  hope  of  protracting  even  a  defensive  war, 
without  the  aid  of  foreign  alUance  and  resources. 

To  this  end  he  solicited  his  father-in-law,  Bocchus,  to  assist 
him  with  a  Mauritanian  army,  and  ultimately  prevailed  on 
him;  but  not  until  he  had  promised  to  resign  to  him  a  third 
part  of  his  dominions,  should  the  Romans  be  driven  from 
Africa,  or  the  war  concluded  wifch  his  territories  undivided. 

Marius,  who  at  this  period  had  no  enemy  in  the  field,  and 
who  probably  regarded  the  war  as  virtually  at  an  end,  with- 
drew his  forces  from  the  desert  regions,  which  he  had  con- 
quered with  so  much  difficulty,  and  which  probably  afforded 
no  facilities  for  wintering  an  army,  toward  his  head-quarters 
at  Cirta,  where  he  proposed  to  go  into  winter  quarters.  He 
was  on  the  march  for  that  place,  when  the  combined  armies 
of  the  two  kings  were  upon  him,  before  he  had  so  much  as 
a  suspicion  of  their  proximity,  and  engaged  him  so  suddenly 
and  with  such  vehemence,  when  there  was  scarcely  an  hour 
of  daylight  remaining,  that  the  legions  had  neither  the  time 
to  secure  their  baggage,  nor  to  form  order  of  battle. 


300  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

Assailed  at  once  on  all  points  by  Moorish  and  Gaetulian 
horse,  who  charged  them  home,  not  in  regular  line,  but  in  a 
multiplicity  of  troops  and  squadrons,  now  striking  here,  now 
there,  cutting  the  legionaries  down  and  spearing  them  in 
front,  in  flank,  in  rear,  the  Komans  were  unable  to  preserve 
their  formation  ;  but  yet  fought  with  such  steadiness  and 
valor,  the  veterans  and  new  soldiers  being  so  united  in  the 
maniples  as  to  give  firmness  and  solidity  to  the  whole,  that 
they  succeeded  in  forming  a  number  of  squares,  or  circles,  as 
chance  threw  them  together,  and  in  protecting  themselves 
and  repulsing  the  enemy  until  nightfall. 

Never  yet  had  Marius  been  so  hard  bestead,  or  so  nearly 
defeated,  as  on  this  occasion  ;  and  it  was  only  by  his  own 
exertion  and  his  exhibition  of  great  personal  qualities,  that 
he  prevented  the  defeat  and  disorganization  of  the  forces. 
As  the  night  closed  in,  so  far  from  discontinuing  their 
attacks,  the  barbarians,  confident  of  success,  pressed  the  more 
closely  on  the  legions  ;  until  at  length,  having  by  exposure 
of  his  own  person,  by  fighting  hand  to  hand  with  the  enemy, 
and  rallying  them  by  exhortation,  example,  remonstrance, 
and  in  short  every  available  effort,  the  consul  reduced  his 
troops  to  something  resembling  disciphne  and  order,  and 
beating  off  the  cavaky  of  the  kings  with  a  great  final  effort, 
marched  with  his  foot  at  double  quick  time  to  a  hill,  which 
he  had  observed  in  the  vicinity  ;  and  there  posted  them,  as 
best  he  might  in  the  darkness,  for  night  had  now  fallen 
thick  and  starless,  to  bivouac  on  their  arms,  without  food  or 
fires,  in  the  midst  of  the  enemy. 

His  cavalry,  under  Sylla,  he  detached  to  a  short  distance, 
where,  on  an  inferior  knoll  or  hillock,  there  was  a  large  and 
perennial  spring  of  water,  with  precise  instructions  that  they 
should  kindle  no  fires,  nor  show  any  lights  whatsoever,  in 
order  as  far  as  possible  to  conceal  their  position  from  the 


DEFEAT    AND    CARNAGE.  301 

enemy,  who  sat  down  in  the  low  grounds  all  around  the  hills, 
and  passed  the  night  after  the  barbarian  fashion,  revelling, 
shouting,  singing  and  exulting  about  their  watchfires,  as  if 
they  were  victorious  ;  for  so  seldom  had  they  fought  the 
Romans  without  incurring  total  rout,  that  to  have  held  their 
ground  was  to  them  sufficient  cause  for  triumph. 

Marius  had  in  pursuance  of  his  plan  forbidden  the 
trumpets  of  the  legions  or  the  clarions  of  the  horse  to  sound, 
as  was  usual,  the  watches  of  the  night,  or  the  relief  of  the 
guards  ;  but  when  toward  dawn  he  observed,  as  he  had 
expected,  that  the  Numidian  watch-fires  had  burnt  down, 
that  the  barbaric  din  had  died  away,  and  that,  worn  out  with 
the  fatigues  of  the  past  day  and  the  riot  of  the  night,  the 
enemy  had  dropped  into  the  lethargy  of  exhausted  drunk- 
enness, he  ordered  all  the  instruments  to  sound  the  charge  at 
once,  and  broke  down,  from  both  hills  together,  fully  pre- 
pared for  action,  on  the  half-awakened  and  panic-stricken 
hordes  of  the  desert. 

There  was  no  stand,  no  resistance,  no,  not  for  a  minute's 
space.  At  first  they  stood  at  gaze,  paralyzed  and  lost  in 
consternation,  then  fled  in  utter  rout.  In  that  action  more 
of  the  enemy  were  slain  than  Jugurtha  had  *lost  in  all  his 
previous  battles,  for  the  unwonted  panic  of  the  men,  and  the 
heavy  sleep  from  which  they  were  but  half  aroused,  pre- 
vented them  of  their  usual  activity  in  flight.  No  defeat 
could  well  be  more  thorough  and  decisive;  yet  Marius,  as  he 
persisted  on  retiring  to  his  head  quarters,  relaxed  no  precau- 
tion, more  than  if  his  enemy  had  been  in  full  vigor  of 
operation.  He  marched  as  if  in  presence  of  a  hostile 
army,  in  a  hollow  square  with  his  baggage  and  camp  fol- 
lowers in  the  centre,  Sylla's  cavalry  on  his  right,  and  Aulus 
Manlius  with  the  archery  and  slingers  on  his  left.  He  for- 
*  Sallust,  Bell.  Jug.  99. 


302  CAIUS   MARIUS. 

tified  his  camp  nightly,  stationed  strong  outposts  of  the 
legionary  cohorts  before  the  praetorian  gate,  caused  a  por- 
tion of  the  auxiliary  horse  to  patrole  all  the  environs,  while 
he  held  another  body  in  reserve,  at  all  times  under  arms, 
within  the  ramparts. 

It  was  well  that  he  did  so,  for  on  the  fourth  day  after  his 
former  defeat,  when  the  Romans  were  already  in  the  vicinity 
of  Cirta,  the  videttes  came  in  at  once  from  all  quarters,  an- 
nouncing the  presence  of  the  enemy  in  each  several  direc- 
tion, for  the  indefatigable  Numidian  had  once  more  rallied 
his  tumultuary  squadrons,  and  detailing  them  into  four  divi- 
sions, was  prepared  to  attack  at  once  on  all  points. 

Uncertain,  accordingly,  whence  he  should  be  assailed, 
Marius  made  no  present  change  in  his  dispositions,  but  pre- 
pared to  deliver  battle  in  the  same  order  in  which  he 
marched,  as  being  equally  fortified  on  all  hands.  So  soon  as 
the  enemy  appeared  in  the  van,  Sylla  halted  the  main  body 
of  his  horse  on  the  right  to  cover  that  wing,  while  he  him- 
self and  others  of  his  ofl&cers  at  the  head  of  single  troops, 
each  very  closely  arrayed,  charged  the  enemy's  cavalry  and 
kept  them  at  a  distance,  while  the  general  made  head  with 
the  legions  against  Jugurtha's  impetuous  onslaught  on  the 
van. 

In  the  mean  time,  Bocchus  came  up  in  the  Roman  rear 
with  his  Mauritanian  foot,  led  by  his  son  Yolux,  who  had 
not  been  present  in  the  last  action,  and  fell  on  boldly,  making 
considerable  impression  by  this  unexpected  diversion.  News 
of  this  being  speedily  brought  to  Jugurtha,  by  some  of  his  wild 
horsemen,  who  were  wheeling  like  hawks  everywhere  about 
the  flanks  of  the  column,  he  galloped  off  unobserved,  with  a 
handful  of  men  to  the  rear,  on  which  he  made  an  attack  so 
fiery  and  impetuous,  shouting  in  Latin  to  the  legions  that  they 
were  fighting  to  no  end,  since  he  had  slain  Marius  with  his 


JUGURTHA^S    LAST    BATTLE.  303 

own  hand,  and  showing  his  sword  reeking  with  blood  from 
hilt  to  point — for  he  had  fought  very  valiantly,  and  slain  a 
Roman  legionary — that  they  wavered,  and  becoming  dis- 
pirited, while  the  barbarians  waxed  bolder  and  more  strenu- 
ous in  the  charge,  could  scarcely  be  restrained  from  flight. 
At  the  critical  moment,  however,  when  all  was  on  tKe  hazard 
of  the  die,  Sylla,  who  by  his  sustained  and  incessant  charge 
of  alternate,  or  unconnected,  squadrons,  had  cleared  both 
wings  from  the  tumultuary  clouds  of  Numidian  horse, 
wheeled  rapidly  to  the  rear  and  charged  the  Moors  of  Boc- 
chus  in  the  flank  with  such  energy  and  vigor  that  the  whole 
body  turned,  as  a  single  man,  and  betook  themselves  to  pre- 
cipitate flight.  Marius,  meantime,  relieved  from  the  pres- 
ence of  Jugurtha  and  the  pressure  of  his  indomitable  desert 
cavalry,  restored  the  battle  in  front  and  converted  what  had 
been  almost  a  disaster  into  a  complete  victory.  Jugurtha 
himself,  while  exerting  himself  most  heroically  to  perfect  his 
half-conquered  success,  was  hemmed  in  by  Sylla's  troopers, 
saw  all  his  best  men  cut  down  to  right  and  left  around  him, 
and  at  last,  with  his  armor  hacked  from  his  body,  dripping 
with  his  own  and  his  enemies^  blood,  got  off  alone  through  a 
storm  of  cuts  and  thrusts  all  directed  at  his  own  person. 

Better  for  him  had  he  there  fallen.  The  rout  was  com- 
plete, the  carnage  horrible  ;  and  for  the  first  time  in  his  ex- 
traordinary career,  he  left  the  field,  without  having  designa- 
ted a  rallying  point,  or  made  arrangements  for  the  reorgan- 
ization of  the  army,  or  the  levying  of  a  new  one.  He  had, 
in  fact,  fought  his  last  battle,  expended  his  last  resource, 
brought  forward  and  lost  his  last  reserve,  exhausted  his  last 
ally. 

On  the  fifth  day  after  the  action,  ambassadors  came  from 
Bocchus  to  the  Roman  winter-quarters  in  Cirta,  requesting 
Marius  to  send  his  most  confidential  assistants,  with  whom  he 


304  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

might  treat  for  accommodation  ;  and  Sylla  being  sent  in 
connection  with  Aulas  Manlius,  negotiations  were  set  on 
foot  with  the  wily  and  perfidious  Mauritanian,  which  termin- 
ated in  his  treacherous  surrender  of  his  suppliant  and  kins- 
man into  the  hands  of  the  common  enemy. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  that  this  conclusion  was  reached 
at  one  interview,  or  as  the  fruit  of  a  single  conference.  A 
second  delegation  reached  Marius,  while,  after  placing  the 
main  army  in  winter  quarters,  he  was  engaged  in  besieging  a 
royal  fortress,  garrisoned  wholly  by  Roman  deserters,  which 
he  speedily  destroyed.  These  delegates,  it  seems,  on  their 
way  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  Gaetulian  robbers,  and  hav- 
ing been  plundered  and  stripped  by  them,  had  escaped  to 
Sylla,  who  received  them  with  hospitality  so  profuse,  and 
largesses  so  ample,  that  he  recommended  himself  in  the  high- 
est degree  to  the  barbarian  king.  Shortly  afterward  three 
of  the  Moors  proceeded  to  Rome,  in  company  with  the 
quaestor,  Cneius  Octavius  Rufus,  who  was  on  his  return 
after  bringing  pay  for  the  army  in  Africa,  and  who  should 
introduce  them  to  the  presence  and  favorable  notice  of  the 
Senate. 

While  this  embassy  was  in  Rome,  obsecrating  the  commis- 
seration,  and  seeking  the  friendship,  of  the  Senate,  which 
they  ultimately  obtained,  Bocchus  again  wrote  to  the  Roman 
General,  requesting  him  to  send  Sylla  to  confer  with  him, 
by  whose  decision  there  were  hopes  that  all  matters  in  con- 
troversy might  be  brought  to  a  final  determination.  Marius 
understanding  that  the  surrender  of  Jugurtha  was  implied 
under  this  wary  circumlocution,  despatched  his  able  young 
subordinate,  with  an  escort  of  Latin  cavalry,  Balearic 
slingers,  auxiliary  bowmen,  and  the  Pelignian  cohort  equip- 
ped in  light  infantry  order,  for  the  convenience  of  rapid 
marching.     After  considerable  suspicions  of  treachery  on  the 


SURRENDER  OF  JUGURTHA.  305 

part  of  the  Mauritanian  king  and  his  son  Yolux,  who  accom- 
panied Sylla  with  a  sort  of  guard  of  honor,  and  who  once 
appeared  on  the  point  of  betraying  his  guest  to  a  division  of 
Jugurtha's  cavalry,  the  quaestor  at  length  arrived  at  the 
royal  seat  of  Bocchus.  For  a  long  time  the  treacherous 
barbarian  doubted,  fluctuated,  whether  of  the  two  he  should 
betray,  cajoled,  flattered,  promised  without  performing  ;  but 
at  last,  awed  by  the  intrepid  and  immovable  firmness  of  the 
young  Roman,  he  determined  against  his  countryman,  his 
son-in-law,  his  brother  king  ;  murdered  his  familiar  friends 
and  counsellors,  and  surrendered  himself,  loaded  with  fetters, 
into  the  hands  of  the  quaetor.  This  glory  Sylla  rated  so 
high,  that,  to  his  last  hour,  he  used  as  his  signet  ring  a  gem 
engraved  with  the  representation  of  liimself  receiving  the 
captive  king,  and  so  earned  the  unmitigable  and  immortal 
hatred  of  the  unforgiving  man,  who  considered  it  an  attempt 
to  rob  him  of  the  fame  which  was  his  right,  of  terminating 
at  length,  a  war  which  had  defied,  for  six  whole  years,  the 
utmost  powers  of  Rome,  and  bringing  into  subjection  and 
slavery  an  enemy  than  whom,  save  Hannibal,  the  republic 
had  never  known  one  more  dangerous  or  desperate,  and  who 
had  debauched,  defeated,  deceived,  or  exhausted  three  suc- 
cessive Consuls  and  their  armies,  and  yielded  only  after  six 
consecutive  campaigns,  when  not  an  inch  of  territory  was 
left  to  him,  nor  a  single  fighting  man  on  whom  he  could 
rely. 

Thus,  with  great  and  merited  honor  to  Marius,  was  this 
long  and  harrassing  war  terminated  in  the  year  of  the  city 
648,  and  106  B.C.,  when  the  successful  general  was  no 
longer  consul,  but  commander,  with  consular  powers,  until 
its  conclusion.  Unimportant,  so  far  as  danger  to  the  exist- 
ence, or  to  the  constitutional  or  territorial  integrity  of  Rome, 
the  Jugurthine  war  had  been  a  severe  and  galling  thorn  in 


806  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

her  side,  from  its  commencement  ;  it  had  seriously  shaken 
the  prestige  of  invincibility  which  had  so  long  clung  to  the 
arms  of  Rome  ;  it  had  demonstrated  the  infamy  of  many  of 
her  senators,  the  imbecility  of  some  of  her  generals,  the  un- 
disciplined and  mutinous  spirit  of  more  than  one  of  her 
armies  ;  and  it  had  sorely  aggrieved  her  haughty  pride,  that 
a  petty  chieftain  of  wild  desert  horse  should  have  held  her 
armies  at  bay,  and  subjected  them  to  disgraces  which  they 
had  never  endured  from  the  gigantic  strength  of  Carthage, 
the  unequalled  science  of  Hannibal. 

Great,  therefore,  was  the  rejoicing  when  it  was  known  at 
Rome,  that  the  war  was  concluded,  as  by  a  thunderstroke, 
and  that  he  who  had  so  long  eluded  the  vengeance  and 
mocked  the  majesty  of  Rome,  was  now  but  a  chained  cul- 
prit, awaiting  her  not  questionable  mercy. 

The  next  year  Marius  was  detained  in  Africa  to  regulate 
the  affairs  of  the  province,  to  sub-divide  the  territory  of  Ju- 
gurtha  between  Bocchus,  Hiempsal,  and  larbas,  the  two 
latter,  princes  of  the  family  of  Massinissa,  and  to  establish 
a  regular  and  lasting  peace,  still  with  the  of&ce  of  pro- 
consul ;  and  while  he  was  thus  engaged,  the  consul  of  the 
year,  Cneius  Manlius  Maximus,  with  Quintus  ServiUus 
Caepio,  his  predecessor,  now  proconsul,  underwent  an  over- 
whelming defeat  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhone,  losing  no  less 
than  80,000  men  in  the  action,  at  the  hands  of  the  Teutonic 
and  Cimbric  hordes,  whose  first  appearance,  on  the  frontiers 
of  the  commonwealth,  has  been  noticed  as  coincident  with 
the  election  of  Quintus  Metellus  to  the  consulship. 

The  terror  inspired  by  the  approach  of  these  most  formi- 
dable barbarians  brought  about  the  second  election  of  Ma- 
rius to  the  consulship,  as  the  only  man  capable  of  preserving 
the  republic  in  such  a  crisis  ;  and  he  was  accordingly  re- 
called to  Italy,  with  his  army,  to  take  the  triumph  which 


THE    TRIUMPH.  30T 

had  been  long  decreed  to  him,  and  to  make  preparation  for 
the  ensuing  campaign. 

Marius  triumphed,  therefore,  with  unusual  glory  and 
magnificence  ;  for  the  rabble  were  rejoiced  at  the  splendid 
achievements  of  their  plebeian  favorite,  which  they  regarded 
in  the  light  of  a  victory  of  their  own  over  the  hated  nobles, 
and  greeted  him  and  his  troops,  men  chiefly  of  the  same  ig- 
noble stamp,  with  extraordinary  congratulation. 

The  victor  brought  into  the  treasury,  at  this  triumph,  no 
less  than  thirty  thousand  and  seventy  ounces  of  gold,  and 
fifty  thousand  seven  hundred  and  fifty  ounces  of  silver,  be- 
sides a  large  sum  of  coined  money.  It  is  singularly  charac- 
teristic of  the  arrogant  and  overbearing  temper  of  the  man, 
that  in  this  moment  of  his  first  triumphant  exaltation,  it 
was  his  first  thought  to  turn  his  own  glory  to  the  humiliation 
and  confusion  of  the  senate  and  patricians,  to  whom  nothing 
could  assuage  his  rancorous  hatred  ;  for,  contrary  to  all  pre- 
cedent, all  usage  or  decorum,  he  entered  the  senate  in  his 
triumphal  robes,  the  palmated  tunic,  the  purple  toga,  the 
sceptre  and  the  crown  of  bays,  as  a  victorious  monarch,  not 
as  the  civic  magistrate  of  a  republic.  He  gained  nothing, 
however,  but  lost  by  this  act  of  insult  and  bravado  ;  for  so 
general  and  openly  demonstrated  was  the  rebuke  which  it 
excited,  that  he  was  compelled,  by  a  sense  of  his  error,  to 
withdraw  on  the  spot,  and  exchange  the  offensive  garb  for 
habiliments  more  befitting  the  presence  and  the  place. 

It  is  no  less  characteristic  of  the  people  and  the  time, 
that  at  the  very  hour  when  the  victorious  general  was  offer- 
ing sacrifice  to  Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus,  in  the  capitol,  the 
captive  king,  stripped  of  his  royal  robes  and  his  jewelled 
ear  rings  torn  violently  from  his  bleeding  ears  by  the  brutal 
haste  of  the  executioners,  was  plunged  naked  and  alive  into 
the  horrible  and  filthy  dungeon  of  the  TuUianum,  wherein, 


308  CAIUS   MARIUS. 

at  a  later  day,  Catiline  and  his  brother  traitors  were  to  ex- 
piate their  guilt  by  the  hangman's  noose. 

Still  in  his  extremity  the  pride  of  the  desert-born  deserted 
him  not ;  and,  as  he  was  cast  into  the  foul  and  foetid  cavern 
in  which  he  was  destined  to  perish  by  starvation,  he  looked 
around  him  with  a  grim  smile  of  defiance — "  Ye  Gods  !  * 
your  hot  baths  in  Rome  are  mighty  cold,"  he  said,  and  then 
died,  like  the  wolf,  in  silence. 

Such  was  the  doom  wreaked  by  Rome  on  all  her  van- 
quished foes,  the  best  and  greatest,  as  the  vilest  and  most 
degraded.  The  murderer  of  Hiempsal,  the  ruthless  torturer 
of  Adherbal,  the  exterminator  of  his  kinsman's  and  bene- 
factor's race,  we  cannot  pity  or  excuse.  But  we  must  re- 
member that  the  slaughter  of  all  kindred  rivals  to  the 
crown  has  been  the  immemorial  law,  and  fratricide,  from  the 
remotest  period  to  this  day,  the  constant  practice  of  the 
barbarous  courts  of  Southern  and  Oriental  Africa  and  Asia; 
that  the  crimes  of  Jugurtha  were  rather  those  of  his  country 
and  of  his  caste  than  of  himself,  as  individual.  His  patriot- 
ism, his  enduring  valor,  his  indefatigable  resource,  and  his 
indomitable  energy  were  his  true  crimes  against  Rome,  and 
dearly  he  abided  them. 

His  faithlessness,  as  alleged  by  the  Roman,  was  evidently 
but  the  usual  stratagem  and  device  of  the  savage,  as  em- 
ployed against  the  civiHzed  man.  Had  it  been  far  more 
real,  Rome  was  debarred  .from  the  use  of  the  plea  by  reason 
of  her  invariable  treachery  to  all  with  whom  she  treated, 
not  least  to  himself,  whom  she  captured  only  in  the  end,  by  a 
kinsman's  treason. 

To  sum  him  in  a  word,  he  was  a  thorough  savage,  with  all 
his  energies  and  instincts.  His  vices  have  come  down  to  us, 
doubtless,  exaggerated  by  the  report  of  his  enemies  ;  his 
*  Plutarch  vit.  Mar.  xii. 


THE    CELTS    AND    CIMBRI.  309 

virtues,  if  he  had  any,  beyond  courage,  have  escaped  their 
record.  If  he  was  in  any  degree  comparable,  however,  to 
his  conqueror  Marius  in  cruelty,  in  treachery,  in  any  form  of 
monstrous  sin,  he  may  be  declared,  as  by  the  Roman  formu- 
la, Jure  Ccesus. 

And  here  a  few  words  may  not  be  out  of  place,  consider- 
ing the  singular  and  formidable  hordes  of  barbarians,  with 
whom,  to  its  great  peril,  the  Roman  RepubHc  was  now,  for 
the  second  time,  brought  into  contact,  and  from  whom  Ma- 
rius was  destined  to  win  his  greatest  renown,  and  that  glory 
which  constituted  him  in  the  opinion  of  the  noble  Roman 
satyrist,  the  happiest  and  most  blest  of  all  things  that  had 
their  origin  of  earth.  These  were  the  tribes  known  by  the 
Greeks,  indiscriminately,  as  Ki/i/iepwc  and  Kelrm,  and  by  the 
Latins  as  Cimbri  and  Galli,  which,  though  in  fact  distinct 
tribes,  had  yet  so  considerable  an  affinity,  both  in  language 
and  customs,  that  a  common  origin,  and  in  fact  an  absolute 
identity,  was  attributed  by  the  ancient  historians  to  all  the 
hordes  which  successively  poured  down  from  the  north  and 
east  upon  the  southern  and  western  countries  of  Europe. 

It  appears  that  the  first  entrance  of  the  Cimmerians,  as 
they  were  termed  so  long  as  they  inhabited,  what  has  al- 
ways been  regarded  as  their  original  soil,  of  which  they  were 
held  indigenous,  the  lands  along  the  Black  Sea,  from  the 
Danube  to  the  Don  and  Volga,  dates*  from  about  the  year 
631  before  the  Christian  aera  ;  when  they  are  said  to  have 
been  forced  westward  by  an  incursion  of  the  Scythians, 
themselves  propelled  by  a  similar  irruption  of  the  Massagetae, 
from  the  Steppes  of  Upper  Asia.  From  this  period  history 
is  silent  as  to  their  exact  course,  but  it  is  clear  from  ethno- 
graphical investigations,  that  they  migrated  slowly,  by  an- 
nual journeys,  to  the  north-westward,  leaving  numerous 
*  Amedee  Thierry.  Hist.  Gaul.  Vol.  I.  Introduc.  75. 


310  CAIUS    MAKIUS. 

colonies  as  they  passed  along,  whicli  constantly  cast  out 
inferior  emigrations,  until  they  were  echelonned,  as  it  were, 
along  all  the  affluents  of  the  Danube,  and  that  great  river 
itself,  from  the  Euxine  to  the  Rhine  and  Elbe,  and  to  the 
peninsula  of  Jutland,  and  perhaps  even  northward  yet  to 
Finland  and  the  shores  of  the  Arctic  Ocean. 

Celts  or  Gael  the  Cimmerians,  Cymri  or  Kymri,  certainly 
were  not  ;  but  it  is  no  less  certain,  that  among  the  Celtic 
Gael  who  had  from  time  long  antecedent  to  all  authen- 
tic history,  occupied  all  the  vast  territory  extending 
westward  from  the  Appenines,  the  Alps  and  the  Rhine  to 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  including  all  Tuscany,  Lombardy, 
France,  Holland,  Belgium,  Portugal,  and  Spain,  not  omit- 
ting the  British  Islands,  they  found  many  tribes,  particularly 
the  Belgic  race  of  France,  and  the  Bretons  of  southern 
England  and  Wales,  with  whom  they  acknowledged  commu- 
nity of  tongue  and  blood,  and  with  whom  they  at  once  fra- 
ternized. 

Diodorus  Siculus  states  positively  that  they  were  Cimme- 
rians, afterwards  called  Cimbri,  who,  under  the  name  of 
Gauls,  took  Rome,  and  reduced  it  to  ashes  in  the  364th  year 
of  the  city,  and  the  389th  before  the  Christian  era;  who  again, 
a  hundred  years  later,  broke  down  into  northern  Greece, 
marched  against  Delphi  and  were  utterly  defeated  and  dis- 
persed by  the  Greek  hoplitse ;  and  who  yet  again,  after 
ravaging  Thrace  and  Macedonia,  passed  the  Hellespont, 
entered  Asia  Minor,  and  established  themselves  there  under 
the  name  of  Galatae,  or  Galatians,  which  is  merely  the  Greek 
form  of  the  word  Gael,  and  probably  merely  a  various  form 
of  the  closely  allied  sound  Keltae.  This  is,  nevertheless,  in 
some  degree  doubtful,  for  it  would  appear  from  unmistake- 
ablc  evidences  of  language,  and  other  points  to  be  noticed 
hereafter,  that,  on  the  second  Cimbric  invasion,  of  which  I 


CIMBRIC    CHIEFS.  311 

have  now  to  treat,  it  was  with  a  portion  only  of  the  tribes 
who  had  settled  in  Italy  or  Gaul  at  the  period  of  the  first 
irruption,  that  the  Cimbri  had  a  community  of  tongue,  and 
made  community  of  cause. 

How  this  may  be  soever,  the  strongest  division  or  horde  of 
Cimbri  which  had  remained  north  of  the  Khine,  were  sud- 
denly driven  from  their  lands  in  Jutland,  and  around  the 
Baltic,*  as  some  aver,  by  a  violent  earthquake,  followed  by 
a  fearful  inundation  of  the  sea,  which  was  raised  from  its 
bed,f  and  swallowed  up  large  tracts  of  the  low  country  ; 
or  as  others  assert,  by  their  own  restless  spirit  and  praedatory 
habits.J  Uniting  themselves  thereupon  with  the  Teutonic 
races  of  the  vicinity,  they  rushed  to  arms,  resolved  on  a 
general  emigration  en  masse,  and  carrying  with  them  in  their 
wains  and  chariots,  all  their  wealth,  all  the  aged,  the  wo- 
men and  the  children,  poured  down  a  more  destructive  de- 
luge even  than  that  of  the  sea  which  had  dispossessed  them, 
upon  the  rich  and  civilized  districts  of  the  south. 

The  Cimbri  were  led  by  their  chiefs,  Boiorix  and  Caesorix, 
as  their  names  are  given  to  us  latinized,  and  the  Teutons  by 
Teutobochus  their  king,  a  man  of  gigantic  frame,  and  of 
such  extraordinary  agility,  that  it  was  a  common  feat  for 
him  to  vault  over  four,  and  even  six  horses  abreast,  as  ia^ 
occasionally  done  in  modern  circuses,  by  aid  of  spring  boards 
and  scenic  apparatus.  The  horde  consisted  of  at  least  three 
hundred  thousand  fighting  men  on  its  departure  from  the 
Baltic  ;  but  as  it  constantly  rallied  upon  itself  the  scattered 
tribes  of  kindred  or  assimilated  origin  through  which  its 
route  lay,  in  spite  of  its  losses  in  war,  it  was  constantly  in- 
creasing in  numbers,  and  waxing  like  a  mountain  torrent 

*  Appian.  Bell.  Illyr. 

t  Claudian.  Bell.  Get.  638.  Amedee  Thierry  Hist.  Gaul.  Part  11. 
Chap.  2.  :j:  Strabo,  'Lib.  YII.,  chap.  ii. 


312  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

swollen  by  innumerable  affluents,  at  every  league,  vaster  in 
volume,  fiercer  in  impetuosity,  and  more  formidable  to  what- 
ever stood  in  the  way  of  its  tide. 

Leaving  the  Baltic,  they  at  first  turned  their  course  south- 
easterly, ascending  the  course  of  the  Elbe  and  Oder,  until 
they  reached  the  elevated  plateau  occupied  by  the  great 
Cercinian  forest,  lying  between  the  Erzgeberg,  Sudetic, 
Carpathian,  and  Schwartzwald  chains,  which  had  been  con- 
stantly held,  since  the  first  barbaric  irruption,  by  the  Boii,  a 
Cimbric  tribe,  whose  name,  Bogh  or  Beog  in  the  vernacular 
Kymric,  signifies  the  Terrible.  This  kindred  race,  proving 
the  correctness  of  their  nomenclature,  resisted  the  approach 
of  their  northern  compatriots  with  such  vigor,  and  offered 
so  strenuous  an  opposition  to  their  transit  through  their  ter- 
ritory, that  the  great  horde  passed  on  directly  southward, 
leaving  the  Boii  to  the  left,  crossed  the  Danube,  wasted  all 
Noricum  and  Yindelicia  with  fire  and  sword,  exterminating 
all  before  them,  and  laid  siege  to  the  capital  Norica,  now 
St.  Leonards,  a  town  situate  on  the  northern  descent  of  the 
Carnian  Alps,  in  close  contact  with  the  frontiers  of  the  Re- 
public. 

In  the  year  of  the  city  641,  B.  C.  113,  the  consul  Cneius 
Papirius  Carbo  received  Illyria  as  his  province,  and  the 
charge  to  watch  the  movements  of  the  Cimbri,  as  his  duty. 
But  he,  having  warned  them  to  avoid  the  Roman  Territory, 
and  respect  a  city  which  was  protected  by  the  Repubhc,  and 
having  received  a  pacific  reply  with  a  declaimer  of  any  in- 
tent to  settle  in  Noricum,  and  a  voluntary  offer  to  withdraw 
their  forces,  fell  into  the  common  error  of  undervaluing  his 
enemy,  and  attacked  them  treacherously  and  at  unawares, 
having  deceived  them  by  peaceful  professions. 

For  once,  treason  met  its  reward,  and  Papirius  was  dis- 
gracefully defeated,  with  the  loss  of  forty  thousand  men,  as 


THE    MIGRATION.  313 

it  is  said,  and  would  have  lost  all  his  army  but  for  a  violent 
tempest,  which  favored  his  retreat.  Still,  notwithstanding 
their  success,  they  shunned  entering  the  proper  territories  of 
Rome,  but  skirting  the  Carnian  and  Rhoetian  Alps,  devas- 
tated Illyria  with  the  utmost  barbarity,  laying  all  waste 
from  the  Adriatic  to  the  Danube,  and  from  the  Alps  to  the 
mountains  of  Thrace  and  Macedonia,  where  they  still  en- 
countered the  outposts  of  the  Romans,  and  still  shrunk  from 
the  encounter.  In  the  third  year  they  entered  Switzerland, 
following  the  valley  of  the  upper  Rhnie  ;  and  at  the  sight 
of  the  vast  train  of  wagons  loaded  with  booty,  the  tribes  of 
the  Helvetians,  always  a  restless,  warlike  people,  inclined  to 
Nomadic  expeditions,  the  Tigurini  or  canton  of  Zurich,  the 
Toygenoe,  or  men  of  Zug,  and  the  Ambrones,  a  Cimbric  race 
who  had  been  formerly  expelled  from  the  plains  of  the  Po 
by  the  Etruscans,  rose  in  arms,  unanimously,  and  swelled 
the  tide  of  havoc  and  extermination  ;  these  last  alone  were 
thirty  thousand  strong  in  warriors  bearing  shield. 

Hence  turning  the  northern  extremity  of  the  Jura,  the 
augmented  horde  rushed  into  Gaul,  which  it  entered  in  tL  , 
country  of  the  Belgae,  themselves  a  Cimbric  race  of  the 
first  epoch  of  migration,  speaking  a  similar,  if  not  identical 
language.  These  armed  to  resist  the  irruption,  but  confer- 
ences followed,  and  the  two  nations  fraternized  ;  the  Belgae 
giving  up  to  their  visitors  a  fortress,  reputed  impregnable, 
in  the  country  of  the  Aduatici,  not  far  from  the  present 
city  of  Tongres,  where  they  left  all  their  enormous  booty 
with  a  garrison  of  6000  men,  and  the  great  horde  agreeing 
to  respect  the  Belgic  country,  and  passing  onward  into  cen- 
tral Gaul,  which  was  mercilessly  devastated  from  the  Marne 
and  Rhone,*  westward  to  the  Atlantic,  and  southward  to 
the  Mediterranean  sea  and  the  Pyrenean  frontiers  of  Spain. 
*  Amedee  Thierry,  Hist  Gauls.  P.  IT.  Chap,  iii. 
14 


314  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

This  work  of  almost  unprecedented  rapine  and  carnage, 
occupied  another  year,  and  in  the  fourth  year  after  their  de- 
feat of  Carbo,  in  the  consulship  of  Metellus  and  Silanus, 
B.  C.  109,  they  turned  their  arms  toward  the  Roman  pro- 
vince, but  still  dared  not  enter  it,  daunted  by  the  invin- 
cible prestige  of  the  Roman  name,  but  sent  deputies  to 
Silanus,  who  had  Gaul  for  his  province,  requesting  the  Re- 
public to  assign  them  lands  in  fief,  for  which  they  offered  to 
do  them  perpetual  man-service  in  war.  Silanus,  however, 
replied  haughtily,  that  "  the  Republic  had  neither  lands  to 
give  them  nor  service  to  require  of  them,"*  crossed  the 
Rhone,  and  was  utterly  discomfited  with  the  loss  of  his 
whole  army. 

In  the  following  year  the  Gaelic  and  Celtic  population 
having  risen,  and  successfully  maintained  the  defensive  line 
of  the  Rhone  and  the  Cevennes,  until  the  arrival  of  fresh 
legions,  the  hordes  divided  themselves  into  two  bodies,  the 
Tigurini,  under  Divico,  their  king,  making  a  northward 
sweep,  in  order  to  enter  the  province  by  the  bridge  of  Ge- 
neva and  fords  of  the  Upper  Rhine  ;  the  Cimbri,  Teutones, 
and  the  remainder  of  the  Switzers,  persisting  on  the  southern 
line  of  operations.  In  this  year,  Marius'  first  consulship, 
his  colleague  Lucius  Cassius  Longinus,  who  had  Marcus 
JSmilius  Scaurus  for  his  lieutenant,  was  opposed  to  these 
formidable  barbarians,  and  being  compelled  to  divide  his 
forces  in  order  to  make  head  against  their  double  movement, 
shared  the  fate  of  his  predecessors.  Being  anticipated  in 
his  movement  through  Switzerland,  to  seize  the  passes  of  the 
Jura,  Cassius  was  cut  to  pieces,  with  his  lieutenant  Piso, 
and  all  his  bravest  legionaries  within  view  of  the  ramparts  of 
Geneva,f  the    remainder  of   his  army    surrendering,    and 

*  Florus  III.  Ch.  3. 

I  Livy.  Epit.  \xv.  C{3esar.  Bell.  Gall.  1.  7-12. 


^MILIUS    SCAURUS.  315 

being  passed  under  the  yoke  ;  while  Scaurus,  with  no  better 
fortune,  delivered  battle  in  the  south,  lost  his  whole  force, 
and  remained  himself  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

And  now  emboldened  by  their  own  successes,  and  totally 
despising  the  terrors  of  the  Roman  name,  which  they  had 
held  so  powerful,  until  they  found  its  defence  so  weak,  the 
barbarians  determined  to  pass  the  Alps,  and  try  the  strength 
of  this  vaunted  foe  at  close  quarters. 

It  was  debated  in  the  Cimbric  councils,  whether  Italy 
should  be  ravaged  only  to  extremity,  or  whether  the  whole 
race  of  Komans  should  be  utterly  destroyed,  the  city  peo- 
pled by  the  Teutons  and  Cimbri,  and  the  Kymric  substituted 
for  the  Latin  tongue.*  And  the  latter  course  they  had 
already  decreed  and  sworn  to  take,f  when  their  prisoner 
Scaurus  was  introduced  in  fetters  for  examination,  and  by 
the  constancy  of  his  replies,  though  it  cost  him  his  own  life 
by  the  dagger  of  the  infuriated  Boiorix,  preserved  his  country 
from  the  influx  of  the  savage  hordes,  mad  with  lust  of  con- 
quest, and  flushed  with  gore. 

Once  more  they  turned  aside  before  the  stern  rampart  of 
the  Alps,  and  applied  themselves  thoroughly  to  subjugate 
the  Narbonese,  or  Roman  province,  part  of  the  population 
of  which,  the  Tectosages  and  the  people  of  Thoulouse,  being 
of  kindred  race,  deserted  the  Roman  Republic,  threw  the 
garrison  of  Thoulouse  into  chains,  and  joined  the  barbarians. 

But  meantime  a  breathing  space  was  gained,  the  consul 
Quintus  Servilius  Coepio,  B.  C.  lOt,  came  out  with  strong 
reinforcements,  re-occupied  the  province,  gained  possession  of 
Thoulouse  by  a  stratagem,  plundered  that  city,  with  the 
Gaulish  temple  of  Belenus  and  the  sacred  lake  J  of  their 

*  Quinctilian,  pro.  Mil  :  Mar. 
t  Plut.  vit.  Marii.  xi. 
t  Strabo,  1.  iv.  188. 


316  CAIUS   MARIUS. 

accumulated  treasures,  some  say  to  the  amount  of  110,000 
pounds  weight  of  gold,  and  1,500,000  pounds  weight  of  sil- 
ver,*— the  most  of  which  he  seems  to  have  converted  to  his 
own  use, — and  terminated  the  campaign  without  any  action  or 
feat  of  arms  against  the  enemy,  who,  it  would  appear,  had 
again  moved  to  the  westward.  In  B.  C.  106,  Ccepio  was  in 
his  turn  superceded  by  Cneius  Manlius  Maximus,  but  con- 
tinued to  act,  as  his  lieutenant,  at  the  head  of  his  own  army, 
serving  as  a  separate  division,  yet  with  such  jealousy  and 
hostility  toward  his  colleague,  as  could  not  but  be  injurious, 
and  was  nearly  fatal  to  the  Republic.  An  insult  offered  by 
this  rash  and  corrupt  man  to  some  deputies  of  the  Cimbri, 
wrought  these  excitable  savages  to  such  a  pitch  of  fury, 
that  they  solemnly  swore,  with  hideous  rites,  war  to  the  ut- 
most, without  quarter,  and  devoted  all  the  captives  and  the 
plunder  to  the  immortal  gods.  The  onset  of  the  savages 
was  appalling  ;  their  charge,  especially  that  of  the  Am- 
brones,  was  irresistible.  The  Roman  camps  were  both  forced, 
almost  simultaneously.  Eighty  thousand  Roman  soldiers, 
and  forty  thousand  slaves  and  camp  followers  fell  by  the 
sword's  edge.  All  the  rest,  save  ten  men,f  who  escaped 
with  Coepio  and  Sertorius,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  barba- 
rians, and  in  conformity  with  their  vow,  were  instantly  hung 
on  the  nearest  trees.  All  the  arms,  armor,  and  baggage 
were  broken  to  atoms  ;  all  the  gold,  all  the  valuables,  the 
very  horses  of  the  army  were  cast  into  the  abysses  of  the 
turbid  Rhone. 

Since  the  fatal  day  of  Cannae,  no  such  disaster  had  be- 
fallen the  Roman  legions ;  no  such  ignominy  had  fallen  on  her 
arms  ;  no  such  panic  stricken  the  hearts  of  the  people. 
There  was  but  one  sentiment  now,  in  any  heart  or  on  any 

*  Justin.  xxxLi.  3. 

t  Paulus  Orosius,  v.  6.  Apud  Thierry.  Vol  II.  Chap.  iii. 


ELECTED    CONSUL.  .  81 1 

tongue  ;  there  was  but  one  man  capable  to  save  the  Re- 
pubUc.  But  had  not  the  fortune  of  Rome  once  more 
stood  her,  almost  supernaturally,  in  stead,  even  Marius  might 
have  come  too  late,  and  the  Alps  and  Appenines,  and  the 
Po  itself,  might  have  yielded  the  keys  of  Italy  to  the  exter- 
minators, or  ere  he  could  come,  hot-footed  from  Numidian 
deserts  to  his  country's  rescue. 

But  fortune  or  fate,  be  it  which  it  may,  befriended  her  ; 
from  the  blood-stained  shores  of  the  Rhone  the  barbaric 
hordes  ebbed  westward,  for  the  moment,  desolating  all  the 
Mediterranean  shores  of  Gaul,  and  poured  themselves  in  a 
torrent,  through  the  southern  passes  of  the  Pyrenees,  into 
the  smiling  plains  of  Spain,  which  they  destined  to  like  out- 
rage. 

Thus  was  gained  time,  of  all  things  the  most  precious  in 
war  ;  and  with  it  the  means,  the  spirit,  and  the  man,  com- 
petent to  meet  and  conquer  the  crisis. 

Contrary  to  law,  which  forbade  any  man  to  be  elected  con- 
sul, except  present  on  the  Campus  Martins,  or  any  to  hold  that 
office  twice  in  succession,  Marius  was  chosen  consul  for  the 
second  time,  while  absent  in  Numidia,  closing  up  the  last 
business  connected  with  the  Jugurthine  war  ;  and  the  peo- 
ple, whose  favorite  he  was,  rejoiced  to  have  their  turn  in 
violating  the  forms  of  the  constitution,  in  behalf  of  one  of 
themselves. 

For  the  noble  Scipio,  they  said,  had  been  as  illegally 
elected  by  the  nobility,  when  under  age,  and  absent  in  Spain, 
and  that,  not  to  save  Rome  but  to  destroy  Carthage  ;  and 
wherefore  should  not  a  greater  than  Scipio,  their  own  great 
Plebeian,  be  elected  by  the  people,  not  to  ruin  an  enemy, 
but  to  preserve  the  Republic,  which  he  alone  was  capable  to 
do.  He  was  chosen,  therefore,  as  I  have  said,  almost  unan- 
imouslv.  with  Caius  Flaccius  Fimbria  as  his  colleague,  and 


318  CAIUS   MARIUS. 

being  recalled  to  Koine,  with  his  army,  triumphed  on  the 
day  when  he  entered  on  his  office,  the  1st  of  January,  106 
B.C.,  in  the  year  of  Rome  652,  as  is  recorded  above,  on 
p.  306,  in  order  to  preserve  the  continuity  of  the  tale  of  the 
Jugurthine  war,  of  which  this  triumph  is  the  actual  and  ap- 
projDriate  termination. 

Immediately  on  the  opening  of  the  season,  Marius  pro- 
ceeded by  sea  to  Marseilles,  with  his  own  legions,  the  Ple- 
beian troops  whom  he  had  at  first  introduced  to  the  honors 
of  military  service,  whom  he  had  formed  to  suffering,  toil, 
and  blood,  in  the  terrible  desert  marches,  desperate  battles, 
and  wild  sieges  of  the  Numidian  war,  who  had  shared  with 
him  the  glories  of  his  triumph,  and  were  prepared  to  follow 
him  to  the  world's  end,  through  either  fortune. 

Rallying  upon  these,  the  relics  of  the  old  consular  and 
praetorian  armies  of  Gaul,  he  now  proceeded  to  exercise 
them,  not  only  in  marches  and  counter-marches,  in  castra- 
metation  and  all  things  connected  with  actual  warfare,  but 
in  works  of  engineering  and  internal  improvement  the  most 
prodigious.  The  mouths  of  the  Rhone,  it  appears,  a  turbid, 
feculent  river,  sweeping,  down  its  current,  volumes  of  alluvial 
soil,  had  become  so  completely  obstructed  with  bars  and 
mud-banks,  that  the  roadstead  and  embouchure  were  inac- 
cessible to  vessels  of  burthen,  an  inconvenience  which  Marius, 
whose  forces  depended  for  their  supplies  on  their  navy,  was 
determined  to  obviate.  Partly  on  this  account,  partly 
adopting  the  pretext,  in  order,  by  constant  labor  and  stren- 
uous occupation,  to  keep  his  soldiers  out  of  the  reach  of 
idleness,  luxury,  relaxation,  and  mutiny,  he  made  them  con- 
struct a  vast  navigable  canal,  from  the  river  above  Arelate, 
or  Aries,  to  the  sea,  which  afforded  not  only  ingress  to  the 
largest  vessels,  but  a  valuable  and  permanent  line  of  defence. 
For  many  years  this  great  work,  which  was  known  as  the 


THE    MARIAN    MLTLES.  319 

Fossae  Marianae,  became  the  real  entrance  of  the  river,  and 
a  maritime  and  commercial  channel  of  the  highest  impor- 
tance ;  a  city  of  the  same  name  sprung  up  at  its  seaward 
mouth,  the  memory  of  which  still  survives  in  the  small  ma- 
rine village  of  Foz,*  and  the  revenue  arising  from  the  en- 
trance and  clearance  duties  was  of  great  advantage  to  Mar- 
seilles. 

So  severe  were  the  toils  undergone  by  the  troops,  that  half 
in  better  jest,  half  in  angry  earnest,  the  legionaries  called 
themselves  the  "  Marian  f  mules  ;"  and  it  was  a  common 
saying  that  his  unrelenting  severity,  his  inflexibility  in  punish- 
ment, his  violence  of  temper,  harsh  voice,  and  unsmiling 
countenance,  rendered  him  as  formidable  to  his  own  men  as 
to  the  enemy.  Doubtless,  the  rigorous  enforcement  of 
strictest  discipline,  doubtless,  severe  and  frequent  punish- 
ment was  necessary  to  cohibit  the  turbulent  natures  and 
daring  insolence  of  the  classes  upon  whom  the  character  of 
legionary  had  now  descended, — and  so  it  was,  in  fact,  prov- 
ed ;  for  it  is  distinctly  stated,  that  the  delay  and  dispersion 
of  the  barbarians  into  Spain  was  doubly  serviceable  to  Ma- 
rius,  as  he  not  only  gained  the  time  necessary  to  indurate 
the  bodies  of  the  men  by  athletic  exertions,  but  to  bring 
their  minds  to  like  tone  and  robustness  by  discipline  and 
practice,  and  to  teach  them  to  know  and  understand  his 
own  nature.  And  in  the  end  they  did  so  ;  for  he  had  quali- 
ties which  endeared  him  to  the  soldiers,  in  spite  of  his  stern- 
ness and  cruelty,  rigid  abstemiousness,  perfect  integrity, 
unbending  impartiality, — and  for  these  they  came  to  love 
him,  and  to  say  that  his  appalling  mien  and  savage  voice 
were  fearful  to  the  enemy  indeed,  but  to  his  countrymen  a 
safeguard  and  defence. 

*  Amedee  Thierry,  Hist.  Gauls,  TI.  3. 
t  Plutarch  vit.  Marii.  xiv. 
14* 


320  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

Thus  passed,  in  inactivity,  as  regards  actual  warfare,  but 
far  otherwise  as  regarded  the  physique  and  morale  of  the 
legions,  the  second  consulship  of  Marius.  But  still  it  was 
known  that,  although  absent,  the  barbarous  enemy  were  not 
far  aloof ;  and  yet  again,  contrary  to  form,  but  it  cannot 
Justly  be  said  contrary  to  the  interests  of  the  state,  Marius 
was  elected  in  his  absence,  for  the  third  time,  chief  magis- 
trate of  Kome.  In  truth,  the  very  fact,  that  the  chief  ma- 
gistrates of  Rome,  for  the  time,  were  necessarily  her  generals 
also,  shows  that  the  rule,  however  excellent  in  peace,  against 
the  continuance  of  office  in  the  same  hands,  would  obviously 
work  ill  in  time  of  war,  when  the  conduct  of  long,  tedious 
hostilities  must  be  entrusted  to  one,  and  he  the  best  and 
ablest  soldier,  in  order  to  ensure  any  reasonable  hope  of 
success. 

And,  indeed,  whenever  such  emergencies  had  existed,  these 
laws  and  formulae  had  long  been  practically  void.  Dur- 
ing the  Second  PunicWar,  the  law  was  suspended,  prohibiting 
the  successive  reelection  of  consuls,  in  the  cases  of  Marcus 
Claudius  Marcellus,  Quintus  Fabius  Maximus,  and  Quintus 
Fulvius  Flaccus,  the  first  two  of  whom  held  that  dignity  five 
times,  and  the  third  four  times  in  succession,  merely  on  account 
of  their  eminent  superiority  as  generals.  At  the  same 
':'.Qie,  on  the  first  occasion,  when  it  became  necessary  to  se- 
lect an  absent  general,  in  order  to  avoid  removing  him  from 
the  seat  of  war,  that  rule  was  violated  also  ;  as,  doubtless, 
it  would  have  been  in  the  cases  above  mentioned,  had  any  of 
those  officers  been  actively  engaged  abroad,  at  the  period  of 
holding  the  consular  comitia. 

In  this  year,  103  B.C.,  Lucius  Aurelius  Orestes  was  the 
colleague  of  the  great  Plebeian  ;  but  again,  the  season 
passed  idly  and  without  alarm,  the  Cimbric  and  Teutonic 
hordes  being  still  occupied,  either  in  ravaging  the  already 


FOURTH    CONSULATE.  321 

twice  ravaged  shores  of  southern  France,  or  in  endea- 
voring, bootlessly,  to  penetrate  the  interior  fastnesses  of 
Spain,  whence  they  were  at  length  expelled  by  the  Celtibe- 
rians.  When  the  time  for  holding  the  elections  at  length 
arrived,  Orestes,  his  colleague,  having  died  in  office,  Marius 
seeing  that  no  enem^  was  at  hand,  left  his  army  in  charge  of 
Manius  Acyllius,  and  proceeded  to  hold  the  comitia.  And 
here  he  was  guilty  of  a  despicable  and  scandalous  piece  of 
demagogueism,  with  the  aid  of  one  of  his  most  infamous 
and  unscrupulous  tools,  the  tribune  Lucius  Saturninus  ;  for, 
when  this  creature  nominated  him  consul,  the  fourth  time,  he 
affected  to  decline,  through  modesty,  the  proffered  honor,  and 
afterward  angrily  and  absolutely  to  refuse  it,  until  Saturni- 
nus charged  him  with  treason  to  his  country,  in  that  he 
would  excuse  himself  from  his  duty  in  leading  her  armies  in 
such  imminent  peril  of  the  Republic.  Then,  pretending  to 
yield  reluctantly,  a  farce  so  barefaced  that  it  failed  to  de- 
ceive any  one,  he  accepted  the  candidateship,  and  found 
himself  once  more  general  and  chief-magistrate,  with  his  own 
veteran  legions  at  his  orders,  and  Quintus  Lutatius  Catulus, 
a  man  of  noble  birth,  sterling  integrity  and  virtues  that 
commanded  even  the  favor  of  the  mob,  as  his  colleague. 

In  the  spring,  as  soon  as  the  weather  favored  military 
operations,  the  Cimbri,  refluent  from  the  rocks  of  central 
Spain,  and  the  cognate  Celtic  tribes  which  held  them,  and 
on  which  they  had  failed  to  produce  any  effect,  rushed  back 
into  central  Gaul,  where  they  rallied  on  themselves  the  Teu- 
tons, the  Ambrones,  and  the  Tigurini,  who  had  tarried  be- 
hind, not  crossing  the  Pyrenees,  and  the  Tectosages,  who 
were  still  partially  in  arms,  notwithstanding  their  defeat  and 
the  capture  of  their  king,  Copillius,  by  Sylla,  in  the  last 
campaign.  Thus  augmented  rage,  and  the  avarice  of 
plunder,  and  the  lust  of  conquest — perhaps  in  some  sort  ne- 


322  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

cessity,  for  Italy  alone,  of  all  Western  Europe,  had  tlius 
far  escaped  devastation,  and  was  alone  perhaps  now  capable 
of  supporting  their  greedy  myriads — determined  them  to 
bring  their  quarrel  with  Rome  to  instant  issue,  and  to  assault 
her,  hand  to  hand,  within  her  boasted  ramparts  of  the 
Alps. 

To  this  end,  they  again  divided  their  multitudes,  and 
while  the  Cimbri,  guided  by  the  Tigurini  of  Zurich,  left 
France  as  they  had  entered  it,  by  turning  the  northern  ex- 
tremity of  the  Jura  into  Switzerland,  passed  thence  by  the 
Tyrol  into  Xoricum,  or  Austria,  and  prepared  to  assault  the 
Rhaetian  or  Carnian  Alps  to  the  north  of  Upper  Italy,  not 
far  from  the  place  where  they  first  came  into  contact  with 
the  legions  under  Carbo. 

Meanwhile  the  Teutons,  led  by  their  terrible  king,  Teuto- 
bochus,  and  accompanied  by  the  Ambrones,  who  seem  to 
have  been  held  as  the  warlike  flower  of  the  hordes,  rushed 
toward  the  mouths  of  the  Rhone,  boasting  themselves  that 
they  would  sweep  the  Roman  legions  like  dust,  out  of  the 
province,  and  join  their  comrades  by  the  passes  of  the  Ma- 
ritime Alps,  in  the  plains  of  the  Po,  wherein  they  had  ap- 
pointed their  rendezvous. 

But  there  lay  an  unexpected  lion  in  their  path, — the  grim 
African  veteran,  confident  of  his  own  resources  and  the 
spirit  of  his  soldiery,  and  snuffing  the  approaching  slaughter 
on  the  wind.  In  the  first  instance  he  had  taken  post  at  the 
confluence  of  the  Isere  and  Rhone,*  awaiting  the  approach  of 
the  enemy;  but  so  soon  as  he  discovered  that  the  Ambrones 
were  pouring  down  the  river  by  its  left  bank,  he  also  retro- 
graded by  the  right  toward  the  sea,  and  taking  a  strong- 
height  in  the  vicinity  of  Aries,  where  the  two  roads,  one 
through  the  passes  of  the  Maritime  Alps,  the  other  by  the 
*  Paulus  Oros.  Y.  16.  apud  Amedee  Thierry. 


THE    LINES    AT    ARLE3.  *       323 

Ligurian  coast,  between  the  mountains  and  the  sea,  diverge 
toward  Italy,  fortified  it  securely,  and  stationing  himself 
firmly,  resolved  to  maintain  the  strictest  defensive,  until  such 
time  as  he  should  find  occasion  to  deal  them  a  decisive 
and  overwhelming  blow. 

They  did  not  cause  him  to  tarry  long  before  they  made 
their  appearance,  ''  infinite  in  numbers,*  terrible  in  aspect 
and  armature,  unlike  to  any  other  race  of  men  in  their  hide- 
ous cries  and  howlings."  With  all  their  battle  cars  and 
cavalry  they  drew  out  in  the  plain,  calling  on  the  Romans 
to  come  out  and  fight  them,  like  men ;  and  when  Marius 
prohibited  the  eager  legionaries,  even  from  skirmishing  with 
them,  or  casting  darts  from  the  ramparts,  reviling  them 
with  scornful  and  insulting  ribaldry  and  obscene  gestures, 
until  the  hearts  of  the  soldiers  burned  with  indignation,  and 
they  complained  bitterly  of  Marius,  that  he  led  them  not 
forth  to  do  battle,  as  became  men  and  Romans. 

Bat  not  for  this  did  Marius  alter  his  plan  of  operations, 
not  even  when  a  gigantic  Teuton  chief  strode  up  to  the  gate 
and  challenged  him  to  single  combat.  At  the  insult  he 
laughed  grimly,  bidding  the  barbarian  go  hang  himself,  if  he 
were  tired  of  living, f  and,  when  he  insisted,  sending  out  a 
gladiator  to  do  battle  with  him,  as  his  equal  in  arms.  Dur- 
ing this  time,  however,  his  men  became  accustomed  to  the 
wild  appearance,  strange  tongue,  and  frightful  gesticulations 
of  these  formidable  savages,  and  at  length  began  to  regard 
that  as  ridiculous  which  had  at  first  filled  them  with  awe 
and  consternation. 

Finding,  at  length,  that  the  Romans  could  not  by  any 
device  be  drawn  out  of  their  stronghold,  the  Teutons  as- 
saulted the  lines  three  days  in  succession,  omitting  no  efforts 

*  Plut.  vit.  Marii,  XY. 

t  Frontin  Stratagem,  lY.,  7.  ap.  Am.  Thierry. 


324  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

to  storm  them,  and  fighting  with  the  desperation  of  wild 
beasts  rather  than  the  courage  of  men.  In  every  attack, 
however,  they  were  bloodily  repulsed,  and  the  legionaries 
soon  became  as  well  used  to  their  mode  of  fighting  as  to 
their  shouts  and  gestures,  and  in  the  end  regarded  them 
alike,  as  of  small  moment. 

Still  the  crafty  veteran  persisted,  encouraging  his  men  by 
the  favorable  divinations  of  the  seeress  Martha,*  and  mak- 
ing himself  acquainted  with  the  most  secret  councils  of  the 
enemy,  by  means  of  a  young  officer,  Sertorius,  who  understood 
the  Celtic  tongue,  and  often,  wearing  the  Celtic  garb,  min- 
gled with  the  Teutons  and  Ambrons  about  their  watch-fires, 
and  rendered  his  leader  the  master  of  their  private  designs, 
himself  unsuspected. f 

Hopeless,  in  the  end,  either  of  storming  the  works,  or  of 
inducing  the  consul  to  deliver  battle,  they  became  restless 
and  weary  of  delay,  and  took  the  unmilitary  and  headlong 
course  of  rushing  onward  heedlessly,  leaving  this  formidable 
power  unregarded  in  their  rear.  Then  might  the  infinity  of 
their  numbers  be  in  some  sort  approximated  ;  for  as  they 
filed  along  beneath  the  Roman  ramparts,  with  their  warriors 
and  cavalry,  their  women  and  children,  their  baggage  wains, 
their  cattle  and  their  beasts  of  burthen,  six  whole  days  were 
consumed  by  the  passage  of  this  living  torrent,  in  one  con- 
tinuous unintermitted  flow.  And  ever,  as  they  rolled  along, 
they  howled  and  reviled  the  Romans,  asking  them  *'  What 
news  shall  we  carry  of  you  to  your  wives  ?  for  we  shall 
see  them  speedily.'^J 

So  soon  as  the  hordes  had  all  passed  by,  Marius  broke  up 

from   his    stationary   encampment,  and  followed   them    by 

slow  marches,  not  pressing  so  closely  on  their  rear,  as  to 

*  Plut.  vit.  Mar.  XVII.  f  Plut.  vit.  Sertorii,  XI. 

t  Plut.  vit.  Mar.  XVHL 


AQU^    SEXTIJE.  325 

bring  on  an  engagement,  nor  falling  so  far  behind  as  to 
allow  them  to  gain  a  clear  march  in  advance,  but  always 
encamping  within  a  short  distance  of  them,  and  ever  in 
strong  natural  positions,  which  he  farther  strengthened  by 
artificial  defences,  so  as  to  set  surprise  at  defiance. 

Ere  long  the  combined  multitudes  arrived  at  the  well- 
known  watering  place  of  Aquae  Sextise,  now  Aix,  in  Pro- 
vence, where  the  pleasantness  of  the  situation,  the  beauty 
of  the  scenery  and  the  delicious  thermal  waters,  which  every- 
where welled  up  from  the  ground,  had  caused  a  small  town, 
with  public  baths,  and  all  the  luxuries  of  the  day,  to  grow 
up.  Thither,  during  the  summer,  it  was  the  fashion  for  all 
the  magistracy,  aristocracy  and  wealth  of  the  province  to 
resort,  as  much  for  luxury  and  pleasure,  as  for  the  medical 
properties  of  the  waters. 

And  here,  having  plundered  the  place,  which  offered  no 
resistance,  of  all  the  valuables  it  contained,  especially  wine 
and  provisions,  the  barbarians  had  crossed  the  little  river 
Ccenus,  now  the  Arc,  with  their  wagons  and  baggage,  and 
established  themselves  in  two  camps,  the  Ambrons  in  one, 
close  to  the  banks  of  the  rivulet,  and  not  far  from  the  walls 
of  the  town  ;  the  Teutons  in  another,  more  remote,  and 
nigher  to  the  acclivity  of  the  mountains.  Here  also,  speed- 
ily came  Marius,  and  according  to  his  wont,  at  once  seized 
and  occupied  a  strong  hill  between  the  town  and  the  enemy's 
camps,  commanding  the  whole  valley.  Favorable,  however, 
as  was  the  position  in  many  respects,  it  had  this  defect,  that 
it  entirely  lacked  water,  which  was  only  to  be  had  from  the 
stream  close  to  the  quarters  of  the  Ambrons. 

It  is  said  that  the  site  was  purposely  chosen  by  Marius, 
who  had  now  resolved  to  deliver  battle,  and  desired  to 
bring  on  the  conflict  apparently  by  accident,  and  at  the 


326  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

same  time  to  add  to  the  valor  of  his  soldiers  the  strong  in- 
citement of  necessity. 

But  when  the  men  grumbled  and  complained  of  thirst, 
Marius  laughed  at  them,  and  pointing  to  the  river,  told  them 
there  was  water  enough,  but  it  must  be  bought  by  blood. 
They  then  clamored  for  instant  battle,  but  still  their  immov- 
able leader  replied  only,  ''  First  fortify  the  camp." 

At  this  time  the  barbarians,  already  gorged  with  food 
and  wine,  and  languid  after  their  recent  baths,  were  lying 
here  and  there  in  groups,  revelling  in  the  warmth,  and  over- 
come with  the  unwonted  luxury,  and  some  were  yet  delight- 
ing themselves  in  the  sparkling  and  tepid  waters.  In  the 
meanwhile  the  legionaries  being  hard  at  work,  pitching  their 
palisade  and  raising  the  vallum,  the  slaves  and  camp-follow- 
ers rushed  down  to  the  stream  to  procure  water,  carrying 
beside  their  water-vessels,  axes  and  cleavers,  and  some  of 
them  pikes  and  swords,  and  coming  suddenly  on  the  barba- 
rians basking  half  asleep  in  the  sun,  put  them  to  the  sword 
without  mercy.  At  the  cries  of  these,  the  enemy  drew  to- 
gether, especially  the  fiercest  and  bravest  of  their  tribe,  the 
Ambrons,  who,  thirty  thousand  strong,  had  the  greater  share 
in  the  defeat  and  butchery  of  the  Romans,  under  Manlius 
and  Coepio.  And  tliese,  though  their  bodies  were  oppressed 
with  food,  and  their  spirits  excited  and  dissolved  by  the  un- 
mixed wine,  advanced  not  in  disarray,  but  clashing  their  arms 
and  leaping  in  harmonious  time,  shouting  at  once  their  own 
national  name,  "  Ambra  I  Ambra  I"  whether  as  exhorting 
one  another,  or  as  proclaiming  their  own  race  boastfully,  to 
terrify  the  enemy. 

Then  Marius  restrained  his  men  no  longer  ;  and  it  so  hap- 
pened that  some  cohorts  of  the  Ligurian  auxiliaries  were  the 
first  men  in  the  plain,  and  these,  strangely  enough,  though 
ignorant  of  the  fact,  and  now  wholly  amalgamated  with  the 


THE    PASSAGE    OF    THE    CCENUS.  S2t 

people  among  whom  they  dwelt,  descendants  of  an  Ambron 
or  Umbrian  tribe,  which  had  been  banished  centuries  before 
by  the  Etruscans,  from  the  plains  of  the  Po,  and  had  lest 
all  recollection  of  their  origin,  except  the  national  name 
and  war-cry,  Ambra  !  And  when  these  heard  the  clamor 
of  the  barbarians,  whether  astounded  or  in  defiance,  they 
too  set  up  the  same  wild  cry,*  and  both  parties  shouting  at 
the  pitch  of  their  voices  in  savage  rivalry,  and  endeavoring 
each  to  outdo  the  other,  the  neighboring  mountains  re- 
doubled the  din,  and  the  valley  of  the  Ccenus  was  filled  with 
the  uproar,  before  the  adversaries  had  even  come  to  blows. 
The  passage  of  the  river,  it  would  seem,  shook  and  dis- 
ordered the  formation  of  the  Ambrons,  who  dashed  into  it 
recklessly,  at  sight  of  the  cohorts,  and  before  they  could 
reform  their  order,  the  Ligurians  were  upon  them,  with  a 
fierce  charge,  sword  in  hand.  But  the  legions  came  to  the 
succor  of  the  Ligurians,  and  pouring  down  from  the  upper 
ground,  to  advantage,  on  the  Ambrons,  forced  them  back, 
bodily,  by  sheer  force,  into  the  channel,  where  rashly  blend- 
ed, and  striking  indiscriminately  at  friend  and  foe,  they  were 
slaughtered  with  prodigious  carnage,  and  the  rivulet  was  so 
heaped  with  carcasses  and  defiled  with  gore,  that  the  con- 
querors had  as  much  blood  as  water  whereof  to  drink. f 
Improving  his  victory  to  the  utmost,  Marius  instantly  passed 
the  river,  and  drove  them,  with  tremendous  slaughter,  to 
their  encampment,  fortified  by  a  square  of  ponderous  wa- 
gons. There,  however,  the  pursuit  was  arrested  by  the 
desperation  of  the  women,  who  rushed  out,  armed  with 
axes  and  broad  swords,  cleaving  down,  in  their  blind  rage, 
equally  the  pursuers  and  the  pursued,  fighting  even  more 

*  Plut.  vit.  Mar.  XIX. 

t  Floras,  lib.  III.  Chap.  iii.  apud  Am.  Thierry,  ut  supra. 


328  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

fiercely  than  their  husbands,  and  suffering  wounds  and 
death  in  scornful  silence  and  unmoved  constancy. 

As  night  fell,  the  consul  drew  off  his  legions,  rej^assed 
the  river,  and  took  post,  as  before,  upon  the  hill  from 
which  he  had  descended,  but  which  he  had  been  prevented 
from  fortifying  by  the  encounter,  brought  on,  as  I  under- 
stand it,  by  accident ;  since  it  is  not  consistent  with  the 
known  skill  and  caution  of  a  leader  so  sage  and  circumspect 
as  Marius,  to  have  left  the  ordering  of  his  battle  intention- 
ally to  hazard  ;  and  it  is  perfectly  consistent  with  the  cha- 
racter of  Roman  historians  to  invent  plausible  reasons  or 
excuses  for  any  action  of  their  heroes  which  they  cannot 
themselves  account  for,  and  which  they  imagine  to  require 
apology. 

That  night  was  one  of  unmingled  horror  ;  for  the  bar- 
barians bewailed  their  losses  and  bemoaned  their  dead, 
not  with  weeping  and  groans,  like  human  beings,  but 
with  appalling  howls  and  roarings,  like  wild  beasts,  to  which 
their  nature  seemed  to  be  in  some  sort  assimilated.  And  a 
gloomy  superstitious  horror  brooded  over  the  gory  plain, 
and  the  Romans,  though  victorious,  were  awe-stricken, 
and  Marius  himself  was  ill  at  ease,  knowing  that  his  camp 
was  unfortified,  and  expecting  at  every  hour  an  onslaught 
from  the  barbarians.  But  they  came  not  either  on  that 
night  or  on  the  following  day,  but  occupied  the  time  in 
preparing  their  arms  and  making  dispositions  for  battle. 
After  it  was  dark,  Marius  detached  one  of  his  staff,  Clau- 
dius Marcellus,  with  three  thousand  soldiers,  to  gain  the  rear 
of  the  savages  by  a  wide  detour,  to  place  himself  in  am- 
bush close  behind  their  lines,  which  were  drawn  up  imme- 
diately in  front  of  the  first  spurs  of  the  mountains,  covered 
with  hanging  woods,  and  full  of  deep  ravines,  heavily 
shaded  with  thickets  of  oak.     The  remainder  of  his  forces, 


THE   TEUTONS.  329 

having  caused  them  to  breakfast  heartily,  and  arm  them- 
selves before  dawn,  he  marched  out  of  his  entrenchments,  as 
soon  as  it  was  hght,  and  arranged  them  on  the  brow  of 
the  hill,  while  he  launched  his  cavalry  into  the  plain,  to 
insult  the  camp  of  the  barbarians. 

Enraged  at  this  sight,  and  beholding  the  legionaries  ar- 
rayed without  the  palisades,  the  Teutons  armed  in  haste, 
and  rushed  out  to  chastise  the  horse,  who  retired,  skirmish- 
ing before  them  in  troops  and  squadrons,  faster  and  faster  as 
they  neared  their  comrades,  until  they  had  thrown  the 
enemy  into  the  disorder  consequent  on  a  rash  and  ill-con- 
ducted pursuit.  Then,  wheeling  diverse,  they  gained  the 
flanks  of  their  own  army,  and  drew  up  in  perfect  order, 
just  as  the  hordes  came  roaring  and  bellowing  and  clashing 
their  huge  cutting  broad-swords  against  the  steep  acclivities 
of  the  knoll,  up  which  they  swarmed  liker  to  ravenous 
wolves,  than  to  men  and  soldiers. 

But  Marius  commanded  his  men  by  no  means  to  charge, 
but  to  stand  firm  and  receive  them  with  the  tremendous  vol- 
ley of  their  ponderous  pila,  hurled  from  above  with  double 
violence,  and  then  to  meet  them  steadily,  in  serried  order, 
with  linked  shields,  as  they  came  staggering  up  the  slippery  as- 
cent, breathless,  and  with  no  sure  foothold,  on  the  points  of 
their  two-edged  Spanish  swords.  Nor  was  he  not  the  first  to 
enforce  his  precepts  by  his  own  example,  for  he  was  inferior 
to  none  of  his  army  in  personal  vigor  or  athletic  hardihood 
of  body,  while  in  fierce  courage  he  surpassed  the  boldest. 
On  this  day  he  showed  himself  not  only  an  admirable  leader, 
but  a  soldier  unrivalled  in  the  use  of  his  own  weapons.  His 
orders  were  obeyed,  and  his  example  followed,  with  perfect 
success  ;  after  a  long  and  deadly  conflict,  in  which  the 
whole  front  ranks  fought  hand  to  hand  in  a  series  of 
mortal  single  combats,  foot  by  foot  the  Teutons  were  forced 


330  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

bodily  back,  fighting  like  incarnate  fiends,  every  blow  and 
thrust  falling  upon  them  from  above,  with  fatal  execution, 
until  they  were  thrust  down  in  increasing  disorder,  to  the 
level  ground  at  the  base  of  the  hill.  With  the  repulse  of 
the  barbarians,  simultaneously  the  Romans  advanced,  de- 
scending from  the  ridge  which  they  had  so  stubbornly  main- 
tained, in  a  single  ordered  line. 

The  Teutons  naturally  became  more  and  more  disorgan- 
ized by  their  descent  from  the  broken  ground  into  the  valley 
of  the  Ccenus  ;  and  their  confusion  was  still  augmented  by 
the  charges  of  the  Latin  horse  from  the  flanks,  and  the 
steady  forward  pressure  of  the  unbroken  legions.  They 
fought  from  morn  until  long  past  noon,  and  Marius  himself 
avowed  that  he  saw  none  of  their  backs,  until  at  last  they 
were  borne  backward  across  the  river  by  sheer  dint  of 
fighting  and  bodily  pressure,  nearly  to  their  own  encamp- 
ment, when  with  the  stern,  short  blast  of  the  Roman  trum- 
pets, and  the  wild  Roman  cheer,  Claudius  Marcellus  rose  . 
from  his  ambush  and  charged  them  at  full  speed  in  the  rear. 
That  ended  the  battle  ;  the  barbarians  broke,  disbanded, 
dispersed.  The  most  of  them  were  slaughtered  on  the  ground 
by  the  soldiers  ;  those  who  escaped  the  first  carnage,  were 
hunted  up  by  the  natives  of  the  country,  and  knocked  on 
the  head,  wherever  they  were  overtaken,  as  if  they  had  been 
mad  dogs.  According  to  the  best  accounts,  one  hundred 
thousand  men  were  slain  in  the  action  and  the  subsequent 
pursuit.  The  wide  plains  to  the  eastward  of  Aix  were  lite- 
rally fattened  by  the  blood  and  corruption  of  the  slaughter- 
ed and  unburied  carcasses.  The  name  of  Campi  Putridi, 
still  preserved  in  its  modern  title  of  Pourrieres,  speaks  vo- 
lumes, and  tells  more  by  the  untutored  eloquence  of  oral 
tradition  than  all  the  pictured  pages  of  history. 

The  camps  being  stormed,   and   all  the  wealth  of   the 


THE    PUTRID    PLAINS.  331 

hordes,  accumulated  from  the  plunder  of  half  Europe,  fall- 
ing to  the  lot  of  the  soldiers,  thev  voluntarily  bestowed  the 
whole  on  their  leader  ;  and  he,  either  not  to  be  outdone  in 
generosity,  or  from  genuine  superstition,  to  which,  it  is  clear, 
he  was  not  inaccessible  ;  or  yet  again,  from  some  now  inex- 
plicable policy,  devoted  the  whole  to  the  gods,  and  in  solemn 
pomp  of  crimson  sacrificial  robes,  was  about  to  kindle  it 
with  the  torch,  as  the  grandest  of  holocausts,  when  fleet 
riders  were  seen  in  the  distance,  urging  their  horses  to  the 
utmost. 

The  sacrifice  was  suspended  ;  the  couriers  arrived  on  the 
spur,  and  hailed  the  general,  ^'  for  the  fifth  time,  consul." 

Among  the  clash  of  arms,  and  the  shower  of  laurel 
crowns  and  garlands,  which  fell  about  him  like  rain,  the  sacri- 
fice was  accomplished;  a  pyramid  of  earth  was  raised  on  the 
"  Putrid  Plains,"  and  until  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  a 
monument  stood  there,  representing  Marius  upborne  on  a 
buckler,  as  imperator,  by  his  soldiers.  A  shrine  was  raised 
on  the  spot  to  Victory  ;  the  site  of  which  was  still  held  con- 
secrated, until  Christianity  itself  was  abolished  in  the  first 
French  revolution,  as  the  church  of  St.  Victoria,  and  is  to 
this  hour  commemorated  in  the  name  Deloubre,  of  the  near- 
est hamlet,  from  the  old  Latin  word  Delubrum. 

But  while  he  was  yet  in  the  full  appreciation  and  enjoy- 
ment of  his  victory,  news  reached  him  from  his  colleague, 
Quintus  Lutatius  Catulus,  that  the  second  storm  had  burst 
on  the  north-eastern  frontier  of  Italy. 

The  Cimbric  division  of  the  hordes  having  made  the  ne- 
cessary detour,  had  come  down  the  valley  of  the  Etsach,  by 
Bolzano,  Trent,  and  Roveredo,  and  leaving  the  men  of  Zu- 
rich as  a  defensive  rear-guard  on  the  crest  of  the  Alps,  had 
descended  in  force  into  the  plains  of  the  Transpadane 
country. 


332  CAIUS    MARITJS. 

Catulus,  who  had  posted  himself  on  the  Italian  slope  of 
the  Alps,  fell  back  before  the  deluge,  and  took  post  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  Adige,  keeping  his  army  in  some  degree  a 
chRval  on  that  river,  which  was  there  crossed  by  a  wooden 
bridge,  fortified  by  a  strong  tete  du  pont,  on  the  left  bank, 
well  fortified  and  strongly  garrisoned  ;  and  here  he  thought 
to  make  his  stand. 

But  the  Cimbri  came  down  the  Alps,  rushing  down  the 
steep  glassy  slopes,  seated  on  their  shields,  as  if  on  sledges, 
careering,  unobstructed,  over  all  obstacles  of  precipice,  ra- 
vine or  crevasse,  and  organized  themselves  in  the  vast  plains, 
in  such  force  as  to  set  all  opposition  at  defiance. 

Not  caring  to  attack  the  Romans  in  their  lines,  or  to 
force  the  passage  of  the  bridge,  they  performed  works 
which  sufficiently  attest  the  vastness  of  their  numbers,  and 
prove  that  the  exaggerations — as  they  are  termed — of  the  old 
historians,  are  but  the  simple  truth.  They  rolled  such 
masses  of  earth,  rock,  and  timber,  into  the  channel  of  the 
Adige,  that  instead  of  crossing  the  river  in  their  front,  they 
threw  it  into  a  false  channel  in  the  rear,  and  so  passed  dry- 
shod  through  its  empty  bed. 

Thus  turned  in  his  position,  and  finding  that  his  soldiers 
were  on  the  point  of  deserting  him,  Catulus  made  a  virtue 
of  necessity,  ordered  a  retreat,  which  he  could  not  prevent, 
crossed  the  Po,  and  took  post  where  best  he  might,  rather,  it 
would  seem,  with  a  view  to  keep  his  force  together,  than  to 
cover  Rome. 

That  these  formidable  hordes  had  no  real  object  in  view, 
either  as  regards  settlement  or  permanent  conquest,  now  be- 
comes perfectly  evident ;  since,  instead  of  marching  direct  to 
Rome,  which  was  wholly  undefended,  even  by  the  dispirit- 
ed and  demoralized  troops  of  Catulus,  they  dispersed  them- 
selves over  the  rich  alluvial  delta  of  the  Po,  and  the  teeming 


THE    COLDI    TENDE.  333 

plains  of  the  Brenta,  revelling  in  the  unusual  dehghts  of 
bread,  cooked  flesh,  and  abundant  wine,  until  they  became, 
as  it  was  said,  effete,  luxurious,  and  lazy. 

Marius,  in  the  meantime,  on  receipt  of  the  news,  set  his 
army  instantly  in  motion  ;  it  is  not  stated  by  what  route, 
but  it  is  rendered  evident,  by  the  course  of  events,  that  it 
must  have  been  by  the  road  which  leads  direct  from  Aix, 
across  the  Maritime  Alps,  by  the  Coldi  Tende,  or  by  the  pass 
of  la  Traversette,  under  the  Monte  Yiso,  into  the  valley  of 
the  upper  Po,  and  thence  by  Turin,  toward  Milan,  whither, 
leaving  Rome  totallv  uncovered,  Catulus  moved  to  meet  his 
puissant  reinforcement,  and  this  done,  took  ship  himself  for 
Rome,  in  order  to  consult  the  senate  and  arrange  the  plan 
of  the  subsequent  campaign.  It  was  expected,  at  this  pe- 
riod, that  he  would  take  his  triumph  for  his  great  recent 
victory  over  the  Teutons,  but  he  declined  it  for  the  present, 
in  consequence  of  the  absence  of  his  army,  which  was  en- 
titled to  share  in  the  honors  of  cerelnonial,  and  which  was 
yet  on  the  route  to  join  Catulus. 

In  the  meantime,  he  joined  his  colleague  in  person,  and  did 
all  in  his  power  to  keep  up  the  courage  of  his  dismayed  sol- 
diery, until  such  time  as  his  own  victorious  veterans  came 
up  from  the  Rhone,  when  he  at  once  repassed  the  Po,  and 
prepared  to  deliver  battle  in  the  Transpadane  country,  for 
the  purpose  of  preserving  Lower  Italy  intact. 

What  could  have  induced  the  barbarians  to  turn  again  to 
the  westward,  and  go  in  search  of  the  consular  armies, 
when  they  might  have  marched  direct  upon  Rome,  leaving 
the  legions  two  hundred  miles  to  their "  right,  cannot  be 
easily  accounted  for,  unless  it  be,  that  still  ignorant,  as  it 
would  seem  they  were,  of  the  defeat  and  annihilation  of 
their  allies,  the  Teutons  and  Ambrons,  they  made  this 
countermarch  towards  the  Maritime  Alps,  in  the  hope  of 


334  CAIUS   MARIUS. 

joining  them  on  their  descent  from  the  mountain  passes,  or 
on  their  entrance  by  the  sea-shore  of  Liguria. 

Again,  when  they  perceived  that  the  Romans  were  pre- 
pared for  them,  they  hesitated  to  attack,  and  demanded 
lands  from  the  Republic,  whereon  they  might  themselves 
settle,  and  a  farther  apportionment  of  territory  for  their 
brothers,  the  Teutons. 

But  Marius  laughed  them  to  scorn  and  made  reply,  "  Let 
be  your  brothers  the  Teutons,  for  they  have  lands  enough, 
and  will  have  for  evermore,  which  they  have  received  from 
us  already."  But  the  savage  emissaries,  understanding  the 
irony  and  disbelieving  the  fact,  reviled  him  bitterly,  and 
threatened  the  Romans  with  present  punishment,  at  the 
hands  of  the  Cimbri,  and  future  vengeance  from  the  Teu- 
tons so  soon  as  they  should  arrive.  "  They  have  arrived 
already,"  replied  the  consul,  ordering  Teutobochus  and  the 
Teuton  prisoners  to  be  led  forth,  '*  and  it  is  but  fitting  that 
you  should  salute  your  brethren,  as  you  will  not  see  them 
again  in  a  long  time."  On  hearing  this,  full  of  grief  and 
rage,  the  deputies  returned  to  the  Cimbric  hordes,  while 
Marius  quietly  prepared  his  army  for  the  encounter  ;  and  it 
is  said,  that  on  this  occasion  he  made  a  change  in  the  form 
of  the  pila,  the  ponderous  heads  of  which  were  ordinarily 
secured  to  the  massive  shafts  by  two  stout  iron  rivets.  The 
lower  of  these  Marius  now  caused  to  be  removed,  and  its 
place  supplied  by  a  weak  wooden  pin,  which  would  break  so 
soon  as  the  weapon  had  transfixed  the  great  bull-hide  buck- 
ler of  the  Cimbri,  so  that  the  shaft  would  bend  at  an  angle 
with  the  head,  and  hang  down  to  the  ground,  embarrassing 
the  soldier,  and  forcing  him  to  abandon  his  cover,  and  fight 
unprotected. 

When  all  was  now  fully  prepared,  Boiorix  galloped  up  to 
the  fortifications  of  the  camp,   and  challenged  Marius  to 


THE    KAUCIAN    PLAINS.  335 

name  time  and  place  when  the  Romans  and  Cimbri  might 
fight  it  out,  and  decide  who  should  possess  the  country — to 
which  Marius  repUed,  that  it  was  not  the  wont  of  the  Ro- 
mans to  consult  the  choice  of  their  enemies  as  to  the  mode 
of  giving  battle  ;  but  that,  nevertheless,  desiring  to  oblige 
the  Cunbri,  he  would,  in  this  case,  meet  their  challenge. 
He,  therefore,  named  the  third  day  from  that  time,  for  the 
combat,  and  the  Raudian  plains,  the  name  of  which  is  pro- 
bably preserved  in  the  name  Rho,  of  a  small  village  a 
few  miles  to  the  eastward  of  Yercellae,  now  Borgo  di  Yer- 
ceUi,  between  the  Tesino  and  the  Sesia,  some  thirty  miles  to 
the  east  of  Milan,  as  the  place  of  encounter,  the  ground 
being  suitable  for  the  operations  of  the  Roman  cavalry, 
and  sufficiently  extensive  to  accommodate  so  large  a  con- 
course. 

Here  he  took  post  on  the  appointed  morning,  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  plains,  so  that  the  fierce  rays  of  the 
blazing  Italian  sun  should  be  full  in  the  eyes  of  the  enemy ; 
and  that  a  violent  east  wind,  which  was  blowing  from  the 
backs  of  the  Romans,  and  raising  whirlwinds  of  dust  which 
literally  obscured  the  heavens,  should  also  fight  against 
them. 

Marius  commanded  thirty-two  thousand  men,  Sylla  lead- 
ing the  cavalry  of  the  whole,  and  Catulus  twenty  thou- 
sand three  hundred — the  latter  occupying  the  centre  with 
his  combined  force,  while  the  legions  of  Mariire  were  divided 
into  two  bodies,  stationed  on  the  wings;  for  he  had  so  ar- 
ranged it,  thinking  that  the  battle  would  be  decided  by  flank 
attacks,  and  that  he  should  so  secure  to  himself  the  honor  of 
the  day. 

In  spite  of  the  disadvantages  under  which  they  labored, 
the  hordes  advanced  undaunted  to  the  attack,  their  infantry 
were  arrayed  in  an  immense  solid  square,  the  ranks  and 


336  '  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

files  being  composed  of  equal  numbers  of  men,  and  extend- 
ing, according  to  Plutarch,  thirty  stadia,  or  nearly  four 
miles,  in  each  direction.  This,  however,  must  be  a  palpable 
exaggeration,  for  the  highest  number  attributed  to  them  by 
Livy,  whose  reckoning  is  the  largest,  is  but  two  hundred 
thousand  killed  and  prisoners,  none  having  escaped  the  car- 
nage ;  and  it  is  evident  that  so  many  men  in  close  order 
would  not  occupy  anything  approaching  to  that  space  of 
ground.  For  the  square  root  of  two  hundred  and  two  thou- 
sand five  hundred,  being  four  hundred  and  fifty,  that  is  a 
sufficiently  near  approximation  to  the  numbers  of  rank  and 
file,  which  would  compose  a  solid  square  of  two  hundred 
thousand  men.  The  marching  space  allowed  to  each  soldier, 
according  to  Poly  bins,*  himself  a  soldier  and  tactician,  was 
six  feet  square  in  open  order,  and  one  yard  square  when 
serried  in  the  synaspismus,  or  order  of  linked  shields.  So 
that  the  utmost  space  which  could  be  covered  by  a  solid 
square  of  two  hundred  thousand  men,  will  not  exceed  nine 
hundred  yards  square  in  open,  or  four  hundred  and  fifty,  in 
serried  order.  But  it  is  stated,f  that  by  a  strange  and  in- 
comprehensible precaution,  the  first  ranks  of  the  Cimbri 
were  attached,  man  to  man,  by  great  iron  chains,  rivetted 
to  their  girdles,  whether  to  render  their  order  more  solid, 
or  to  take  from  the  soldiers  any  hope  of  escapmg  by 
flight.  This  would,  of  course,  indicate  the  closest  possible 
array  of  battle*  and  the  lesser  square  as  the  utmost  extent 
of  their  body. 

ThierryJ  understands  the  passage  as  meaning  that  the 
camp,  wagons,  plunder,  and  non-combatants,  together 
with  the  infantry,  occupied  a  square  of  thirty  stadia,  but 

*  Polybius.  XII.  17. 

t  Plutarch  vit.  Mar.  xxvii. 

X  Am.  Thipr;y  Hist.  Gaul,  II.  3. 


THE    CIMBRIC    HORSE.  331 

Plutarch^s  words  will  not  bear  this  construction,  for  he 
says,  ''  The  Cimbric  infantry  advanced  tranquilly  from  out 
their  defences,  making  their  depth  equal  to  their  front  ; 
for  each  side  of  their  array  had  thirty  stadia  of  length." 

The  whole  passage  must  therefore  be  set  down  to  mere 
inconsiderate  and  reckless  Latin  exaggeration,  which  it  is 
useless  to  attempt  to  explain  or  modify,  since  it  unquestion- 
ably had  its  origin  in  a  deliberate  intention  to  deceive,  for 
the  purpose  of  magnifying  the  prowess  of  the  Romans. 

The  cavalry  of  the  Cimbri,  fifteen  thousand  strong,  was 
not  the  least  formidable  portion  of  their  army.  They  were 
splendidly  equipped,  and  made  a  glorious  show,  with  helmets 
fashioned  to  imitate  the  heads  of  terrible  wild  beasts  with 
jaws  open,  as  if  to  devour,  and  wide-expanded  wings  above 
all  for  crests,  with  glittering  corslets  of  steel,  and  resplen- 
dent white  bucklers.  Their  javelins  were  doubly-pointed, 
having  a  head  at  either  extremity,  and  when  they  came  to 
close  quarters  they  used  great,  heavy,  cutting  broad-swords. 

These  terrible  troopers  were  the  first  to  commence  the  at- 
tack, not  by  a  direct  charge  to  the  front,  but  by  a  wide 
sweep  to  the  sword  hand,  with  the  intention  to  turn  the  Ro- 
man left,  and  fall  on  their  unguarded  flank.  And'  the 
Roman  generals  perceived  and  understood  the  feint,  but 
were  unable  to  restrain  their  men,  one  of  whom  crying  out, 
that  the  enemy  were  flying,  the  whole  body  rushed  forward 
in  pursuit.  At  the  same  time,  the  infantry  of  the  barba- 
rians came  on,  surging  and  tossing  like  a  huge  entering  sea, 
and  Marius  washing  his  hands  and  vowing  a  whole  hecatomb 
to  the  gods  if  they  might  conquer,  and  Catulus  likewise  be- 
seeching them  to  sanctify  to  him  the  fortunes  of  that  day, 
the  soothsayers  pronounced  the  omens  favorable,  and  the 
conqueror  of  the  Teutons,  shouting  aloud  that  the  victory 
was  to  him,  led  his  men  to  the  charge. 
15 


338  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

Thereupon  a  strange  thing  fell  out  ;  for  the  dust  hung 
suspended  in  such  dense  volumes  over  the  whole  plain,  that 
the  motions  of  both  armies  were  totally  obscured,  and  that 
*Marius,  with  his  entire  division,  passed  without  the  enemy's 
lines,  encountering  no  one,  and,  marching  forward  into  the 
plain,  missed  them  completely,  and  wandered  about  in  the 
darkness,  utterly  at  fault  and  ignorant  what  to  do  ;  so  that 
the  main  brunt  and  surge  of  the  barbarians  broke  down 
upon  Catulus,  to  whose  division  Sylla  was  annexed,  with  his 
cavalry,  and  that  the  victory  and  the  glory  were  to  them. 
Of  the  manoeuvres  or  accidents  of  the  day,  nothing  is  known 
but  that  the  conflict  was  long  and  bloodily  contested,  hand 
to  hand.  The  heat  and  the  sunshine  fought  for  the  Romans, 
and  the  Cimbri,  used  to  cold  regions,  and  the  almost  Arctic 
cold  of  their  vast  and  gloomy  forests,  were  utterly  unable 
to  endure  the  sultriness  of  an  Italian  summer  ;  for  the  con- 
flict occurred  on  the  third  day  previous  to  the  calends  of 
August,  that  is  to  say,  according  to  the  Koman  mode  of 
reckoning,  on  the  thirtieth  of  July,  or  the  very  hottest  and 
most  intolerable  portion  of  the  year.  Smothered  with  whirl- 
winds of  dust,  driven  directly  into  their  eyes  and  nostrils, 
and  blinded  by  the  glare  of  the  sun,  when  it  blazed  out  in 
occasional  glimpses,  redoubled  by  the  repercussion  f  of  its 
beams  from  the  brazen  armor,  the  savages  fell  on  with  little 
vigor,  out  of  breath,  reeking  with  perspiration,  and  instead 
of  covering  their  bodies  from  the  enemy^s  blows  with  their 
bucklers,  sheltering  their  faces  with  them  from  the  unen- 
durable fierceness  of  the  morning  and  noonday  light. 

The  darkness  also  befriended  the  Italians,  for  while  it 
prevented  them  from  seeing  to  their  dismay  the  innumerable 
ranks  of  the  Cimbri,  it  likewise  hindered  those  from  availing 

♦Plut.  vit.  Mar.  XX YI. 

t  Floras,  liber  m.  Chap.  III.  apud  Thierry. 


THE    CIMBRIC    WOMEN.  339 

themselves  of  their  numbers  ;  while  their  want  of  discipline 
and  the  immobility  of  their  huge  unwieldly  masses,  embar-  • 
rassed,  moreover,  by  the  very  means  which  they  had  adopted 
to  ensure  their  steadiness,  rendered  them  singularly  liable  to 
the  disconnected  and  desultory  charges  of  an  active,  flexible, 
and  easily  handled  enemy,  such  as  the  legions,  who  eventu- 
ally pierced  the  hordes  at  all  points,  and  slaughtered  them 
ruthlessly,  giving  no  quarter  to  men,  who  chained  together 
by  ranks,  when  once  disordered,  could  neither  wheel  nor 
fight  to  advantage,  much  less  fly. 

When  at  last  the  Cimbri  were  driven  back  to  their 
"Vagons  and  fortifications,  the  women  standing  on  the  de- 
fences, in  black  robes,  with  dishevelled  hair,  cut  down  the 
fugitives  with  axe  and  claymore,  slaying  their  brothers, 
husbands  and  fathers,  as  mercilessly  as  the  Roman  enemy. 
Then  having  vainly  *  offered  to  the  consuls  to  surrender,  on 
condition  that  their  honor  should  be  spared,  and  that  they 
should  be  allowed  to  devote  themselves  to  perpetual  chastity 
as  servants  of  the  Yestal  virgins,  they  took  the  last  and 
sternest  resolution.  Slaughtering  their  children,  dashing 
their  brains  out  against  the  naves  of  the  wheels,  or  casting 
them  to  be  trampled  to  death  under  the  hoofs  of  the  beasts 
of  burthen,  not  one  of  them  survived  the  destruction  of  their 
horde,  which  was  to  them  their  home,  their  country,  and 
their  all,  on  this  side  of  eternity.  One  of  them  was  found 
suspended  from  the  top  tilt  of  her  wagon,  with  her  twin 
children  hanging  from  her  ancles ;  others,  for  want  of  trees, 
hung  themselves  by  halters  to  the  horns  and  legs  of  their 
oxen,  and  then  goaded  them  to  their  speed,  and  were  tram- 
pled under  their  impetuous  hoofs.  All  perished,  nor  was  one 
reserved  to  be  dragged  at  the  chariot  wheels  of  the  cruel 
conqueror,  or  to  minister  to  the  brutal  pleasures  of  the  savage 
*  Paul  Oros.  lib.  Y.  c.  16.  Floras  ut  supra. 


3.40  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

soldiery.  Of  the  men,  from  one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and 
forty  thousand  fell  on  the  field  or  were  slaughtered  in  the 
pursuit  ;  sixty  thousand,  less  happy,  were  taken  prisoners, 
sold  as  slaves  to  the  cruellest  and  basest  servitude,  or  kept 
for  the  bloody  sport  of  the  gladiatorial  arena. 

Even  after  the  conclusion  of  this  awful  catastrophe,  when 
the  Romans  attempted  to  penetrate  into  this  scene  of  car- 
nage and  horror,  they  were  yet  assailed  by  a  fresh  enemy, 
the  fierce  and  faithful  dogs  of  the  horde,  which  defended 
the  encampment  and  the  dead  bodies  of  their  masters,  with 
such  desperate  fidelity,  that  no  entrance  could  be  had  until 
they  were  exterminated  by  flights  of  arrows,  the  men  not 
choosing  to  encounter  their  fangs  at  close  quarters. 

The  rear  guard  of  the  Tigurini,  who  had  been  posted 
on  the  height  of  the  Alps,  hearing  of  the  general  ruin,  fell 
back  into  Noricum,  which  they  wasted  far  and  wide,  and 
thence  retreated  into  Switzerland,  where  they  remained 
tranquil  until  a  fresh  frenzy  for  emigration  drove  them  again, 
a  half  century  later,  into  Gaul,  where  they  perished,  with 
most  of  their  nation,  by  the  sword  of  Julius  Caesar. 

Thus  ended  the  career  of  the  second  and  last  of  those  barba- 
rous Celtic  hordes,  which  swept  the  whole  southern  continent 
of  Europe,  from  east  to  west,  devastating,  destroying,  with 
fire  and  sword,  like  a  very  scourge  of  God — leaving  no  track  of 
their  progress  but  ruin  and  ashes,  no  monument  but  solitude 
and  devastation — hordes,  which  founded  no  nation,  erected 
no  institution,  bequeathed  no  discovery,  left  no  heritage  to 
posterity  of  art,  of  intellect,  of  improvement,  of  progress,  of 
humanity  ;  which  have  planted  only  in  the  lands  where  they 
tarried  longest,  ignorance,  barbarism,  superstition,  all  the  pas- 
sions, with  few  of  the  virtues,  of  the  original  savage,  flagrant 
and  vital  to  the  present  day. 

Unlike  the  Goths  and  Yandals,  they  never  assimilated 


MARIUS   TRIUMPHS.  '    341 

themselves  to  the  more  cultured  races  among  whom  they 
settled  ;  never  adopted  one  of  their  refinements,  never  built 
up  a  single  edifice  of  liberty,  of  law,  of  literature,  of  science ; 
never  erected  anything  in  lieu  of  what  they  pulled  down, 
whether  cities,  institutions  or  principles  ;  but  having  been 
sent,  as  it  were  on  a  mission  of  extermination,  would,  on 
their  own  total  extermination,  were  such  a  result  at  this  day 
possible,  be  remembered,  only  by  the  records  of  the  ruin 
they  have  wrought,  and  the  traditions  of  their  rash  and 
reckless  valor,  which  seems  to  have  been  their  nearest  ap- 
proximation to  a  virtue. 

Therefore,  what  was  supposed  to  be  the  extermination  of 
the  race  so  immitigably  hostile,  and  it  must  be  added,  so 
terrible  to  the  Romans,  was  rewarded  in  Marius  with  great 
and  extraordinary  honors.  After  the  news  reached  Rome 
of  the  destruction  of  the  enemy,  the  citizens  made  libations* 
to  his  name,  as  never  had  been  done  but  to  the  immortal 
gods  ;  the  very  magnates,  who  had  always  hitherto  opposed 
him  as  an  ignoble  person  admitted  to  the  highest  honors  of 
the  state,  now  acknowledged  him  the  savior  f  of  his  country; 
and  the  whole  state,  with  one  consent,  adjudged  to  him  the 
honor,  unjustly  as  it  would  appear,  of  triumphing  alone  for 
both  victories,  to  the  exclusion  of  his  colleague.  This,  how- 
ever, he  refused  to  accept,  J  whether  that  he  wished  to  affect 
a  moderation  which  he  did  not  possess,  or,  what  is  much 
more  probable,  since  there  was  nothing  of  moderation,  and 
very  little  of  affectation,  in  the  character  of  Marius,  that  he 
dreaded  the  opposition  of  the  soldiers,  who  might  prevent 
him  from  triumphing  at  all,  should  he  defraud  his  colleague 
of  his  share  of  glory. 

♦  Yaler  Max.  YIII.  15.  7. 
t  Livy  epitome  LXVIII. 
X  Plut.  vit,  Marii.  XXVn. 


342  CAIUS   MARIUS. 

The  pomp  was  a  grand  one,  and  purely  martial.  There 
were  no  ingots  of  uncoined  gold  and  silver  ;  no  urns  and 
vases  of  money  ;  no  pictures,  no  statues,  no  luxury  of  con- 
quered  monarchs,  only  the  huge  and  battered  arms  of  the 
enemy,  attesting  the  puissance  of  the  warriors  and  the  obsti- 
nacy of  their  resistance  ;  only  the  men  themselves,  mighty 
of  bone  and  sinew,  grim-visaged,  fierce  and  sallow  ;  only 
their  king,  Teutobochus,  fettered  like  his  companions  in  de- 
feat, and  so  tall  in  stature,  that  he  towered  above  the  tro- 
phies of  his  conqueror. 

From  that  day  forth,  Marius  set  no  bounds  to  the  insolent 
arrogance  of  his  demeanor,  to  the  extravagance  of  his  am- 
bition. He  adopted  as  his  device,  and  wore  ever  carved  on 
his  buckler,  the  face  of  a  Celt  making  grimaces,  with  his 
tongue  thrust  out.*  He  pretended  to  equality  with  Bacchus, 
the  conqueror  of  India ;  and  is  said,  henceforth,  to  have 
drunk  only  out  of  a  two-handled  Carchesium,  which  had 
been  used,  as  tradition  went,  by  that  demi-god  himself, 
during  his  career  on  earth,  though  it  is  not  so  clearly  indi- 
cated by  what  means  it  came  into  the  hands  of  the  great 
plebeian  consul. 

At  this  period,  he  stood  unquestionably  the  first  Roman 
citizen,  the  first  Roman  general  of  his  day,  perhaps,  in  all 
respects,  the  most  considerable  and  greatest  man  of  the 
world  in  that  age.  Hitherto  he  had  done  everything  for 
his  country,  nothing  against  it.  He  had  conquered  every 
enemy  he  had  encountered  ;  he  had  saved,  beyond  doubt, 
the  republic  from  the  greatest  peril  that  had  threatened  it 
since  the  days  of  Hannibal  ;  and  if  he  had  proved  himself  a 
bitter  and  rancorous  hater  of  a  large  class  of  his  country- 
men, and  as  an  individual,  a  man  of  brutal  temper  and  all- 

*  Cicero  de  Oratore,  lib.  II.  266.  Quinctilian  YI.  3.  apud  Amedeo 
Thierry, 


SIXTH    CONSULSHIP.  343 

surpassing  arrogance,  he  had  done  nothing  hitherto  contrary 
to  his  duties  as  a  man,  a  soldier,  or  a  Roman. 

From  this  time  forth  he  did  nothing  well,  nothing  honor- 
ably, nothing  generously,  nothing  victoriously,  whether  as  a 
man,  a  general,  on  a  citizen.  Empty  ambition  for  place, 
deadly  detestation  of  the  senate,  and  an  insane  lust  after 
noble  blood,  became  from  this  time  his  only  ruling  passion, 
his  only  spring  of  action — 

Exilium  et  Career  Minturnarumque  paludes, 
Et  meudicatiis  victa  Carthagiae  panis, 
Hinc  causas  habuere. 

With  his  Teutonic  and  Cimbric  triumph,  the  military 
career  of  Marius  is  in  fact  finished,  for  although  he  bore 
arms  again  throughout  the  social  war  of  Italy,  he  achieved 
nothing  of  consideration  ;  and  though  a  Roman  general, 
acted  continually  as  if  he  desired  the  success  of  the  Italian 
confederacy,  to  which  he  actually  belonged  by  birth,  and 
with  whose  cause  he  in  fact  identified  himself  at  a  later 
period.  But  a  brief  sketch  of  his  after  career  is  necessary 
to  a  full  comprehension  of  his  character,  and  to  the  easier 
appreciation  of  the  history  and  circumstances  of  his  suc- 
cessors. 

Although  he  had  been  already  five  times  consul,  with 
great  glory,  and  had  now  nothing  to  gain  by  a  prolongation 
of  office,  he  procured  his  election  for  the  sixth  time,  by 
having  recourse  to  bribery,  to  flattery  of  the  mob,  to  the 
most  abject  pandering  to  prejudice,  and  to  every  dirtiest  and 
most  dishonorable  trick  of  the  demagogue.  Elected  to  his 
sixth  consulship,  in  the  year  of  Rome  654,  B.  C.  100,  which 
year  is  also  famous  for  the  birth  of  Caesar,  so  nearly  have  we 
now  arrived  to  the  dissolution  of  the  republic,  he  leagued 
himself  to  the  factious  tribune  Saturninus,  the  prsetor  Glau- 


344  CAIUS   MARIUS. 

cia,  and  the  quaestor  Saufeius,  who  for  the  space  of  nearly  a 
year,  positively  governed  the  state,  after  their  -assassination 
of  Nonius  Sufenas,  overpowering  the  senate  and  magistracy 
by  the  terror  of  the  violence  and  daggers  of  a  rabble  of 
desperate  ruffians,  the  refuse  of  the  disbanded  soldiery  whom 
Marius  had  infamously  and  illegally  mustered  into  the  le- 
gions, and  who  were  now  ready  to  follow  any  leader,  whether 
for  or  against  the  state,  who  should  give  them  plunder  and 
blood. 

By  dint  of  this  terror  they  succeeded  in  passing  many 
atrocious  laws,  subversive  of  all  rights  of  property,  of  all 
constitutional  principles,  and  giving  all  powers,  legislative, 
judicial  and  executive,  to  the  primary  and  tumultuary  meet- 
ings of  the  city  rabble,  held  in  the  streets  and  public  places, 
under  no  sanction  of  law  or  guarantee  of  order. 

By  this  means,  not  without  recourse  to  personal  violence, 
Marius  procured  the  banishment  of  his  detested  enemy,  that 
most  virtuous  and  respectable  citizen  Quintus  Metellus  Nu- 
midicus,  and  would  have  proceeded,  by  aid  of  his  factious 
tools,  to  what  extremities  it  cannot  be  said  ;  for  having 
armed  their  hands  and  excited  their  minds  to  contempt  of  all 
right  and  reason,  he  was  now  so  little  able  to  restrain  them, 
that  in  his  despite  they  rushed  headlong  into  their  own 
ruin. 

At  the  subsequent  elections,  the  three  confederates  of  the 
consul,  Saturninus,  Glaucia,  and  Saufeius  caused  one  of  the 
candidates  for  the  consulship,  who  seemed  likely  to  prevail 
over  Glaucia  in  the  canvass,  Cains  Memmius,  to  be  murdered 
on  the  ground,  while  the  tribes  were  in  the  act  of  voting. 
Alarmed  themselves  at  the  consequences  of  this  outrage, 
and  of  the  fierce  indignation  which  it  occasioned  among  all 
classes,  the  conspkators  armed  their  adherents,  seized  the 


LEAVES    ROME.  345 

capitol,  and  openly  defying  the  Republic,  had  instant  re- 
course to  arms. 

The  senate  now  assembled,  and  taking  courage  from  the 
emergency,  invested  the.  consuls  with  dictatorial  power  by 
charging  them  '[  to  see  that  the  Republic  took  no  harm," 
while  the  equites,  the  nobility,  and  all  the  citizens  of  rank, 
respectability  and  station,  took  arms  and  flocked  to  the 
standard  of  the  Republic. 

Marius  was  fain  to  vacillate  and  spare  the  offenders,  but 
the  rebellion  was  so  flagrant,  the  crime  so  palpable,  and 
the  general  feeling  of  the  city  so  strong,  that  he  dared  not 
resist  the  commands  of  the  senate.  The  capitol  was  invest- 
ed in  form,  and  held  out  for  several  days,  until  the  water- 
pipes  were  cut,  when  it  surrendered  at  discretion  ;  and  the 
conspirators,  whom  Marius  still  desired  to  favor,  were  con- 
fined in  the  hall  of  the  senate,  until  the  consuls  should 
receive  farther  orders.  But  the  citizens,  who  were  yet  in 
arms,  seeing  the  palpable  intention  to  discharge  these  fire- 
brands and  assassins  without  trial,  much  less  punishment, 
broke  into  the  place,  put  them  all  to  the  sword,  and  by  that 
terrible  blow  restored  the  constitution,  the  authority  of  tlie 
senate  and  magistracy,  and  the  true  freedom  of  the  state. 
Two  consuls  were  elected  of  the  conservative  party,  Metel- 
lus  was  recalled  from  banishment,  and  Marius,  finding  him- 
self too  weak  to  overthrow,  as  yet,  the  government  of  Rome, 
retired,  for  a  while,  into  private  life — ^happy  both  for  himself 
and  his  country  had  he  emerged  from  it  no  more,  for  his  re- 
turn to  the  helm  of  state  was  a  return  only  to  defeat,  dis- 
grace and  death.  Unable  to  endure  a  meeting-  with  Metel- 
lus,  he  took  ship  for  Asia  Minor  and  Galatia,  under  pretext 
of  sacrificing  to  the  "  mighty  mother"  of  the  gods,  but  in 
reality  with  a  view  to  force  Mithridates  into  a  war  with 
Rome,  by  his  intrigues  and  insults,  in  the  expectation  that 
15* 


346  CAIUS   MARIUS. 

he  should  therein  find  employment  and  occasion  for  fresh 
triumphs.  For  the  time,  however,  he  was  disappointed,  and 
returning  to  Rome,  took  a  house  close  to  the  forum,  which 
was  frequented  by  crowds  of  his  turbulent  adherents.  At 
this  time,  occurred  his  first  open  rupture  with  his  great 
rival,  arising  from  the  presentation  by  Bocchus  the  Maurita- 
nian,  of  twenty  golden  statues  to  the  temple  of  Victory, 
on  the  Capitoline,  among  which  was  a  group  representing 
the  delivery  of  Jugurtha,  fettered,  into  the  hands  of  Sylla. 
This  trophy  Marius  would  have  pulled  down  as  an  unjust 
attribution  of  his  own  honors  to  another,  while  Sylla  as 
eagerly  insisting  on  its  preservation,  the  civil  wars  would 
even  then  have  commenced,  had  not  the  differences  of  the 
two  enemies  been  temporarily  composed  by  the  Mar.sic 
league  against  Rome,  and  the  breaking  out  of  the  devastat- 
ing wars  of  the  Italian  confederacy. 

This  war,  arising  from  the  refusal  by  the  senate  of  the 
just  demands  of  the  Italian  allies,  particularly  the  Marsi, 
Peligni,  Yestini,  Marcini,  Picentes,  FerentanaB,  Hirpini, 
Pompeiani,  Yenusini,  Apuli,  Lucani,  and  Samnites,  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  privilege  of  citizenship  of  Rome,  which  they 
had  supported  and  defended  with  their  valor,  their  blood, 
and  their  treasure,  during  the  most  critic al^nd  perilous  por- 
tion of  her  career,  broke  out  in  the  year  of  the  city  663, 
B.  C.  91,  and  continued  for  three  years  to  rage  throughout 
Italy  with  terrible  fury,  and  to  the  lamentable  desolation  of 
the  country.  Above  three  hundred  thousand  men  were  slain 
in  this  internal  conflict ;  many  flourishing  towns  which  had 
escaped  the  ravages  of  both  Pyrrhus  and  Hannibal,  were 
reduced  to  piles  of  ashes,  and  Rome  herself  survived  only 
through  the  fidelity  of  the  cities  of  the  Latin  name,  wliich 
had  long  enjoyed  a  modified  franchise,  and  which,  as  in  the 
second  Punic  War,  remained  true  to  the  fortunes  of  the 


END    OF   THE    SOCIAL    WAR.  ,341 

Commonwealth.  Of  this  war,  little  is  known,  as  there  exists 
in  history,  at  this  present  moment,  a  singular  hiatus.  All 
the  most  distinguished  Roman  officers  were  employed,  in- 
cluding Pompeius  Strabo,  the  father  of  him  who  was  after- 
ward known  as  Pompey  the  Great — Coepio,  Messala,  Lucius 
Julius  Caesar,  Sylla,  Marius,  and  Perpenna, — the  two  latter 
of  Italian  origin,  though  in  the  Roman  service.  On  the 
side  of  the  confederates  were  men  of  nearly  equal  merit  and 
capacity — Pompedius  Silo,  Pontius  Telesinus.  Judacilius, 
Yentidius,  and  Yettius  Cato. 

Of  the  Roman  leaders  Pompeius  Strabo,  Lucius  Caesar 
and  Sylla  alone  obtained  either  credit  or '  success.  Marius 
and  Perpenna  would  neither  give  battle,  nor  follow  up  ad- 
vantages when  they  fell  in  their  way  ;  and  so  evidently  was 
the  former  temporizing,  if  not  conspiring  with  the  enemy,  in 
the  hopes  of  their  ultimate  success,  that  he  was  forced  to 
resign  his  command  on  the  plea  of  nervousness,  but  in  truth 
because  lie  perceived  that  he  was  distrusted  and  suspected 
by  the  people,  and  falling  into  discredit  through  the  suc- 
cesses of  his  enemy,  Sylla,  as  contrasted  with  his  own  inac- 
tivity. 

After  a  while  the  war  languished,  either  party  feeling  its 
inability  to  conquer,  and  was  ultimately  composed  by  the 
gradual  admission  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Italian  cities  to 
the  desired  franchise.  Those  who  had  not  taken  arms  at  all 
being  first  admitted,  then  those  who  had  desisted  from  wea- 
riness, and  lastly,  all  who  should  lay  down  their  arms  within 
a  certain  time. 

The  contest  terminated,  though  in  truth  there  had  been 

no  victory  in  the  case,  by  the  triumph  of  Pompeius  Strabo 

for  the  storming  of  Asculum,  and  the  election  of  Lucius 

.  Cornelius  Sylla,  henceforth  surnamed  Felix,  the  Fortunate, 

to  the  consulship  and  conduct  of  the  Mithridatic  War,  in 


348  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

the  year  of  the  city  666,  B.C.  88,  in  acknowledgment  of 
Ms  exploits,  nor  only  in  this  Marsic  or  Social  war,  but  on 
every  occasion  when  he  had  held  an  independent  command. 

The  next  question  was  how  to  dispose  of  the  new  Italian 
citizens,  who  out-numbered  in  individual  voters  all  the 
Roman  citizens  of  the  old  thirty-five  tribes  ;  and  who,  had 
they  been  merged  in  them,  would  have  constituted  a 
majority  in  each  tribe,  and  consequently  carried  the  whole 
assembly,  swamped  the  old  Roman  vote,  and  actually 
governed  Rome. 

They  were  formed  into  eight  new  tribes,  which,  voting  last 
in  the  assembly,  after  the  old  tribes  had  delivered  their 
voice,  had  little  influence  or  effect  in  the  state, — an  arrange- 
ment as  unjust  to  the  new  citizens,  as  the  other  would  have 
been  to  the  old  burghers,  which  was  one  of  the  main 
causes  of  the  bloodshed,  dissensions,  horrible  anarchy  and 
cold,  centralized  despotism,  which  soon  succeeded. 

At  this  moment  one  Sulpicius,  a  tribune  of  the  people, 
and  the  counterpart,  in  character  and  villainy,  of  Saturninus, 
Glaucia,  and  Saufeius,  revived  the  former  conflicts  between 
the  popular  and  senatorial  parties,  as  before,  at  the  secret 
instigation  and  with  the  connivance  of  Caius  Marius,  and 
as  before  by  means  of  a  rabble  of  three  thousand  armed 
gladiators,  whom  he  called  his  anti-senate,  and  by  whom  he 
over-awed  the  state,  and  virtually  governed  it.  In  the 
course  of  his  proceedings  a  violent  sedition  arose,  in  which 
Pompeius,  son  of  the  present  consul  and  son-in-law  of  Sylla, 
was  openly  butchered  in  the  street,  and  Sylla  himself 
escaped  murder  only  by  flying  to  his  army  of  six  legions, 
which  were  lying  in  Campania,  awaiting  the  arrival  of  their 
general,  to  set  out  for  Greece,  to  which  they  were  ordered. 

So  soon  as  Sylla  had  left  the  city,  Marius  began  to  play 
his  part  openly,  in  concert  with  Sulpicius,  and  procured  the 


THE    NEW    TRIBES.    .  349 

revocation  of  Sylla's  appointment  to  the  Mithridatic  War,  and 
his  own  appointment  in  his  lieu,  by  one  of  those  tumultuous 
and  illegal  street-conventions  which  arrogated  to  themselves, 
and  too  often  obtained  the  power,  if  not  the  right,  of  super- 
seding the  regular  laws  and  appointments  of  the  senate  and 
magistracy,  according  to  the  forms  of  the  constitution. 

Officers  were  sent  off  at  once  to  take  the  army  out  of  the 
hands  of  Sylla  and  his  subordinates,  and  hold  it  until  Marius 
should  arrive  ;  but  these  men  were  at  once  slain  in  a  tumult 
of  the  soldiery,  and  Sylla  marched  at  once  with  his  six  le- 
gions upon  Rome,  with  the  declared  purpose  of  liberating 
the  senate  and  the  state  from  what  was  in  truth  the  domi- 
nion of  a  lawless,  rebellious,  and  usurping  faction,  and  of 
restoring  the  authority  of  the  proper  magistrates,  without 
the  desire  of  personal  aggrandizement.  Entering  the  gates 
partly  by  force,  partly  by  stratagem,  he  cleared  the  streets, 
not  without  some  sharp  fighting  and  the  conflagration  of 
some  parts  of  the  city,  of  the  partizans  of  Marius,  restored 
the  power  of  the  senate,  whom  he  instantly  convened  to  de- 
liberate on  the  state  of  affairs  and  procured  the  passage  of 
a  law  dedaring  Marius  and  twelve  of  his  principal  adherents, 
enemies  of  the  state,  as  men  who  had  violated  the  laws  of 
the  Republic,  seduced  slaves  to  desert  their  masters  and  to 
take  arms  against  them,  and  of  having  himself  warred 
against  Rome  in  its  very  streets. 

Of  these  desperate  and  dangerous  men,  the  abominable 
wretch  Sulpicius — whose  place  in  history  is  beside  Saturninus, 
Glaucia,  Saufeius,  villains  of  smaller  parts  though  not  less 
atrocity,  than  Catiline,  Marius  himself,  and  their  competitors 
in  infamy,  in  modern  ages,  Fouch^,  Marat  and  Robespierre — 
was  dragged  from  his  hiding-place  amid  the  marshes  of  Mintur- 
nae,  and  put  to  death  summarily  as  a  traitor,  his  head  being 
exposed  in  the  forum  on  one  of  the  public  rostra. 


350  CAILS    MARIL'S. 

Marius,  more  fortunate,  obtained  a  vessel  at  Ostia,  and 
set  sail  for  Sicily  or  Africa,  but  being  forced  into  Circeii  by 
stress  of  weather,  fled  for  concealment  to  the  same  marshes 
of  Minturnee,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Liris,  now  the  Garig- 
liano,  where  he  buried  himself  to  the  chin  in  the  obscure 
and  fetid  mire,  which  failing  to  seclude  him  from  his  pur- 
suers, he  was  captured  and  cast  into  prison  at  Minturnae. 
Here  he  was  ordered  for  execution  ;  but  by  the  connivance 
of  the  magistrates  of  that  Italian  town,  who  did  not  choose 
to  sacrifice  the  countryman  and  friend  of  their  nation,  he 
was  suffered  to  make  his  escape,  and  even  furnished  with  a 
ship,  which  conveyed  him  first  to  the  coast  of  Sicily,  whence 
he  was  driven  by  the  officers  of  the  republic,  and  thereafter 
to  Africa  and  Carthage,  where  occurred  the  romantic  inci- 
dent of  the  great  outlawed  hero  being  found  seated,  desolate 
and  alone,  on  a  fallen  pillar's  base  amid  the  desolation  of 
Rome's  prostrate  rival,  which  has  given  a  theme  to  so  many 
painters  and  poets. 

The  story  may  here  be  mentioned,  how  a  Cimbric  slave 
and  gladiator  was  sent  into  the  dungeon  of  Minturnae, 
with  orders  to  despatch  the  mighty  exile,  and  how  he  re- 
coiled from  the  terrific  aspect  and  appalling  voice  of  the 
grim  septuagenarian  ;  and  how,  on  the  brief,  stern  question 
in  those  awful  accents — "  Man,  darest  thou  slay  Caius 
Marius  I"  he  rushed  headlong  from  the  prison,  leaving  the 
gates  unfastened,  and  cast  down  his  bloodless  sword  before 
the  magistrates,  crying,  "  I  cannot  kill  this  man." 

The  legend,  however,  is  a  mere  fiction,  framed  by  the 
partizans  of  Marius,  partly  to  exaggerate  the  awe  and  mys- 
tery, which  still  surround  his  name,  partly  to  exculpate  the 
magistracy  of  Minturnae  of  their  treason  to  Rome,  in  suf- 
fering so  great  a  criminal  to  escape  their  justice. 

After  his  arrival  at  Carthage,  and  his  repulse  thence  by 


TREACHERY    OF    CINNA.  351 

the  praetor  Sextilius,  he  concealed  himself  in  bye-places  and 
islands  on  the  wild  Numidian  shore,  the  scene  of  his  early 
triumphs,  until  he  was  recalled  by  his  late  colleague  and 
partner  in  guilt,  Cinna,  to  complete  the  horrors  of  his  atro- 
cious career,  by  a  death  no  less  horrible  than  his  life  had 
been  hideous  and  detestable. 

No  sooner  had  Sylla  departed  with  his  troops  against 
Mithridates,  whose  progress  in  Pontus,  Lesser  Asia,  the 
islands  of  the  Archipelago  and  the  mainland  of  Greece  it- 
self, was  very  formidable,  and  who  had  recently  caused  to  be 
massacred  in  a  single  day,  every  Roman  citizen,  without  dis- 
tinction of  age  or  sex;  in  his  dominions,  than  Cinna,  who 
had  solemnly  sworn  fealty  to  the  republic  and  fidelity  to  the 
constitution,  as  Sylla  had  re-constituted  it,  on  the  old  time- 
honored  model,  broke  his  troth  and  resuscitated  the  ancient 
riots,  favoring  the  claim  of  the  new  citizens,  whose  cause 
henceforth  became  identical  with  that  of  the  old  dema- 
gogues, the  factious  tribunes,  and  their  rabble  of  incendiaries 
and  assassins. 

Being  defeated  in  his  object,  and  forced  to  leave  the  city 
by  his  colleague  Octavius  and  the  aristocratic  party,  he  with- 
drew into  the  fields,  levied  one  army,  brought  over  two 
moreg  recalled  Marius  and  the  exiles,  and  once  more  declared 
war  on  the  commonwealth. 

Marius  returned,  the  Italians  joined  him  to  a  man  ;  the 
armies  of  all  the  generals,  who  should  have  opposed  him, 
composed  of  legions  of  enfranchised  slaves,  aliens,  proleta- 
rians, and  all  the  off-scourings  of  the  great  corrupt  city, 
whose  camp  was  their  country,  and  their  most  lavish  leader 
the  chief-magistrate  of  the  republic,  deserted  their  generals 
and  united  themselves  to  the  rebellion.  Rome,  besieged  and 
closely  invested,  being  pressed  by  hunger  and  having  no 
hope  of  relief,  surrendered,  and  at  the  head  of  a  Roman 


352  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

army,  Marius  and  Ciima  entered  the  gates  of  Rome  as  a 
captured  city,  devoted  to  all  extremity  of  havoc,  rape,  and 
butchery. 

Marius,  with  a  loathsome  affectation  of  humility,  refused 
to  wear  any  garb  but  mourning,  having  his  face  besmirched, 
his  coarse  gray  hair  disordered,  and  his  raiment  in  tatters,  as 
if  an  exile  and  a  suppliant,  until  the  senate  should  reverse 
his  attainder,  and  restore  his  freedom  of  the  city.  They 
did  so,  and  he  entered,  and  the  very  stones  of  the  via  sacra 
cried,  ''  Woe  !"  as  he  marched  in  triumphant. 

He  was  surrounded  by  a  body-guard  of  liberated  slaves, 
whom  he  named  Bardiaei,  who,  at  his  slightest  nod  or  ges- 
ture, or  his  failing  to  return  the  salute  of  the  passers  by,  cut 
them  down  ruthlessly.  By  his  direct  orders,  every  member 
of  Sylla's,  party  who  could  be  found,  was  indiscriminately 
slaughtered,  not  that  they  were  his  enemies,  either  personal 
or  political,  but  only  that  they  were  nobles  by  birth,  true  to 
their  order,  and  conservators  of  the  Roman  constitution. 

For  live  consecutive  days  this  hideous  slaughter  lasted  ; 
the  maddened  multitude  joining  the  slaves  and  massacring,  at 
hazard,  all  that  were  reported  noble,  virtuous,  friends  of 
their  country,  above  all,  rich,  until  disgusted  and  sickened 
at  the  carnage  and  the  gore,  which  literally  flooded  the  ken- 
nels, Cinna  and  Sertorius,  Marius'  own  friends  and  col- 
leagues, brought  in  regular  troops,  put  all  the  Bardisei  to 
the  sword,  and  restored  tranquility,  if  not  peace,  law,  or 
order. 

Among  the  victims  of  those  hideous  days,  similar  only  to 
the  Parisian  Saturnalia  of  the  accursed  directory,  fell  of  the 
noblest  men  of  Rome,  Cneius  Octavius,  the  consul,  Marcus 
Antonius,  the  orator,  C.  Julius  Caesar,  Quintus  Lutatius 
Catulus,  reputed  the  most  virtuous  man  of  his  day,  and 
Marius'  own  colleague  in  the  battle  with  the  Cinibri,  and 


HIS   DEATH.  353 

Lucius  Cornelius  Merula,  the  chief-priest  of  Jupiter,  who 
bled  himself  to  death,  to  escape  ignoble  butchery,  in  the  ca- 
pitol,  and  sprinkled  the  sacred  things  with  his  illustrious 
gore. 

In  the  year  of  Kome  658,  86  B.C.,  despising  all  the 
forms  of  polity,  and  desirous  to  the  last  to  exhibit  his  con- 
tempt of  Rome,  and  his  detestation  of  the  nobles,  disdaining 
to  be  reelected,  Marius  proclaimed  himself,  in  the  seventy- 
second  year  of  his  age,  for  the  seventh  time  consul. 

A  few  days  afterward,  to  the  great  joy  of  his  citizens  and 
the  great  good  of  liberty  and  humanity,  the  monster,  whilom 
styled  the  savior  of  his  country,  died  universally  feared,  and 
yet  more  detested. 

His  death  was  equal  to  his  life  in  horror,  for  he  died  lite- 
rally fury-hunted  by  his  guilty  and  blood-drunken  conscience ; 
he  coLild  not  sleep  by  night,  so  hideous  were  the  terrors  of 
his  dreams ;  he  dreaded  alike  the  darkness  and  the  light  ; 
•and  ever  there  seemed  to  ring  in  his  ears  the  strange  verse  of 

a    well-known   poet — ''Ae^/^ai  yag  Kolrai  Kill  aTZOLxo/xivoio  Titovrog," 

"  Dreadful  is  the  lair,  even  of  the  dying  lion  ;"  and  thus,  to 
avoid  the  agonies  of  his  own  mind,  he  took  to  frantic  orgies 
and  incessant  drunkenness,  and  so,  having  been  notorious 
from  his  youth,  upward,  for  frugality  and  temperance,  ex- 
pired a  madman  and  a  drunkard,  exclaiming  that  the  very 
cup  he  craved  mantled  with  human  gore. 

His  character  may  be  summed  up  in  half  a  dozen  words; 
it  is  nearly  the  most  detestable  in  history;  would  be  so  alto- 
gether, had  not  his  kindred  spirits,  the  French  Jacobins,  out- 
done him  in  all  excesses  of  atrocity  and  guilt. 

As  a  general,  there  is  nothing  known  of  him,  which  is  not 
admirable, — as    a   man,   nothing   that    is    not   detestable. 

There  was  no  feature  of  generosity,  no  caprice  of  magna- 


354  CAIUS    MARIUS. 

nimity,  no  casual  whim  of  humanity,  in  his  hard,  stern,  ruth-  - 
less  spirit. 

Even  his  ambition  had  nothing  in  it  grand  or  ennobling. 
He  coveted  power,  indeed,  and  won  it ;  but  it  was  at  last 
only  the  power  to  kill.  His  hatreds  were  as  insensate 
as  they  were  savage.  The  nobles  had  never  wronged  liim, 
unless  a  single  sneer  of  Metellus  be  a  wrong  expiable 
only  in  blood  ;  on  the  contrary,  in  common  with  all  classes, 
after  his  defeat  of  the  Teutons  and  Cimbri,  had  joined  in 
loading  him  with  honors,  and  hailed  him  pater  patriae. 

To  speak  of  him  as  a  statesman,  a  politician,  even  a  re- 
former, is  idle  ;  for  in  all  his  seven  consulships  he  advocated 
no  principle,  introduced  no  considerable  measure,  carried 
out,  nor  even  attempted  any  reform.  Like  the  parrot  cry  of 
the  elder  Cato,  ''  Delenda  est  Carthago,"  his  sole  maxim 
was  destruction  to  the  nobles.  He  destroyed  them,  and 
with  them  his  own  fame,  and  the  freedom  of  his  country. 
Had  there  been  no  Marius, there  could  have  been  no  Caesar; 
and  the  sentence  of  Yelleius  Paterculus,  that,  in  regard  of 
his  conquest  of  the  Teutons  and  Cimbri,  Rome  had  no 
cause  to  repent  having  produced  a  Marius,  is  but  the  un- 
meaning peroration  of  a  rhetorician. 

His  early  services  were  utterly  effaced  by  the  infamy  of 
his  last  days,  and  he  expired  in  the  act  of  subverting  the 
constitution  of  his  country,  of  destroying  all  her  legitimate 
and  capable  defenders,  and  of  delivering  the  once  free  and 
noble  commonwealth  to  the  icy  chains  of  a  silent,  centralized 
autocracy,  the  most  abhorred  by  men,  and  by  the  gods 
abandoned. 


VI. 


LUCIUS  CORNELIUS  SYLLA,  FELII. 

HIS     JUGURTHINE,     CIMBRIC,      MARSIC,     AND     MITHRIDATIC     CAM- 
PAIGNS.  SIEGE     OF    ATHENS. BATTLES    OF    CH^ERONEA   AND 

ORCHOMENOS. CIVIL   WARS. DICTATORSHIP   AND   DEATH. 

Triumphant  Sylla  !     Thou  who  didst  subdue 
Thy  country's  foes,  ere  thou  wouldst  pause  to  feel  - 
The  wrath  of  thine  own  Avrongs,  or  reap  the  due 
Of  hoarded  vengeance,  till  thine  eagles  flew 
O'er  prostrate  Asia.     Thou  who  with  thy  frown 
Annihilated  senates.     Roman,  too, 
With  all  thy  vices,  for  thou  didst  lay  down, 
With  an  atoning  smile,  a  more  than  mortal  crown— 
The  dictatorial  wreath. 

This  great  and  fortunate  soldier  was  of  birth  no  less  noble 
and  exalted  than  his  rival  and  enemy,  whose  career  we  have 
just  traced  to  its  close,  was  low  born  and  ignoble.  Of  the 
grand  Cornelian  family — which  had  given  to  the  Roman  Re- 
pubUc  so  many  of  its  best  and  greatest  citizens,  which  was 
thereafter  to  produce  so  many  of  its  direst  fire-brands — from 
which  had  sprung  Cossus,  who  slew  with  his  own  hand  Lar 


356  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

Tolamnius,  and  bore  to  the  capitol,  second  to  Komulus  only, 
the  spolia  opima — from  which  had  sprung  twelve  noble 
Scipios,  among  whom  the  conquerors  of  Hannibal  and 
Antiochus — from  which,  beside  himself,  the  all-victorious, 
sprang  Cinna,  Dolabella,  Lentulus,  Cethegus,  the  parricides 
of  Rome  and  mates  of  the  arch-traitor  Catiline — he  was  as 
mighty  and  consistent  a  champion  of  his  order,  as  was  Marius 
its  unvarying  and  uncompromising  foe. 

He  was  born  in  Kome  in  the  year  of  the  city  61^,  B.C.  139, 
in  the  consulship  of  Marcus  jEmilius  Lepidus,  and  Caius 
Hostilius  Mancinus,  of  poor,  though  patrician  parents,  about 
seventeen  years  later  than  Caius  Marius,  to  w^hom  he  was  in 
every  respect  the  natural  opposite,  no  less  than  the  self-con- 
stituted opponent.  In  daring  valor,  strategetic  skill,  and 
unrelenting  temper  alone,  did  they  bear,  each  to  the  other, 
some  resemblance.  But  the  mere  physical  brute  cour- 
age of  the  plebeian  of  Arpinum  could  as  little  compare 
with  the  astute  considerate  valor  of  the  proud  Roman  Patri- 
cian, as  could  the  boorish  ignorance,  of  which  he  was  so  dis- 
reputably proud  and  boastful,  compare  with  the  refined  and 
graceful  scholarship,  the  fine  literary  taste,  and  polished 
eloquence  of  his  rival. 

As  the  one  was  morose,  churlish,  rugged  of  bearing,  harsh 
of  temper,  abstinent  of  wine  and  women,  averse  to  all  social 
pleasure,  so  was  the  other  afi'able,  courtly  in  demeanor,  jovial 
in  his  humor,  lavish  in  his  largesses,  luxurious  in  his  life,  and 
fond  of  gay  and  riotous  society.  So  that  it  was  afterward 
remarked  that  the  vengeance  of  the  Patrician  wore  an  aspect 
far  more  terrible  and  loathly  than  that  of  the  ruthless  Ple- 
beian ;  for  that  the  latter  derived  his  cruelty  from  the  im- 
pulses of  a  savage  and  morbid  temper,  while  the  former, 
of  an  easy  disposition,  sentenced  with  a  smile  on  his  lips,  and 
signed  his  death  warrants  among  his  wine  cups. 


HIS    PERSONAL    APPEARANCE.  35 1 

He  does  not  appear,  naturally,  to  have  been  a  man  of  vio- 
lence, or  of  that  hot  and  heady  ambition,  to  which  some  of 
his  later  acts  have  been  attributed,  but  to  have  been  rather 
driven  by  succeeding  circumstances  to  the  greatness,  which 
he  in  the  end  attained,  than  to  have  been  spurred  to  it  by 
any  resolution  to  command  fortune  and  conquer  place. 

At  all  periods  of  his  life  indolence,  luxury,  and  the  true 
Italian's  appetite  for  the  dolce  far  7iiente,  seriously  combatted 
his  mounting  energies,  and  clogged  the  soaring  wing  of  his 
aspiring  genius  ;  and  to  the  end,  his  strangely  mingled  love 
of  the  highest  mental  refinements  ;  and  the  lowest  sensual  in- 
dulgences, strove  for  the  mastery  with  his  lust  of  victory  and 
thirst  of  vengeance.  His  very  abdication  of  the  power,  to 
reach  which  he  had  waded  to  the  knees  through  blood,  was 
dictated  as  much  by  his  desire  for  luxurious  literary  leisure, 
his  love  for  the  green  woods  and  deep  pastures  of  his  estates 
at  Cuma,  for  solitary  wanderings  by  the  ever-sounding  shore, 
and  for  the  wild  excitement  of  the  chase,  as  by  his  weariness 
of  government,  his  contempt  for  those  he  governed. 

In  person  he  was  tall,  well  built,  and  athletic,  but  his 
countenance  was  strange  and  unprepossessing  in  the  ex- 
treme ;  for  his  light  blue  eyes  had  a  terrible  pale  glare, 
which  was  exaggerated  by  a  scorbutic  ruddy  efflorescence 
overspreading  one  half  of  his  features  ;  so  that  his  face  was 
compared  by  the  buffoons  of  Athens,  when  he  was  besieging 
that  city,  to  a  mulberry  sprinkled  with  meal.  The  first  step 
of  Sylla  toward  advancement  was  one  by  no  means  reputa- 
ble, nor  such  as  should  grace  the  entrance  of  a  youth  of 
aristocratic  birth  into  the  world  ;  for  originally  poor  in  pecu- 
niary fortune,  he  became  moderately  rich  by  means  of  a 
legacy  bequeathed  to  him  by  a  woman  of  evil  fame,  with 
whom  he  had  held  most  intimate  connexions,  and  who  died 
deeply  enamored  of  him.     To  this  was  added  the  legacy  of 


358  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

his  mother-in-law,  who  loved  him  as  her  own  son,  and  from 
whom  he  inherited  her  entire  possessions,  which  rendered 
him  if  not  rich,  at  least,  entirely  independent  of  the  world^s 
frowns  or  caresses. 

For  a  considerable  time,  it  would  appear  that  he  re- 
mained content  with  what  he  had,  leading  an  indolent,  licen- 
tious, literary  life,  and  living  with  associates,  and  in  a  man- 
ner clearly  discreditable  to  a  man  of  his  origin  and  ancestry. 
It  was  not  until  the  year  of  Rome  64T,  107  B.  C,  in  the 
first  consulship  of  Caius  Marius,  and  the  fifth  campaign  of 
the  Jugurthine  War,  that  he  made  his  appearance  on  the 
political  theatre  of  Rome  ;  when,  being  elected  quaestor  in 
the  thirty-second  year  of  his  age,  he  was  sent  into  Numidia, 
in  command  of  the  Italian  cavalry,  and  that  of  the  allies  of 
the  Latin  name,  which  had  not  been  levied  and  arrayed  early 
enough  in  the  campaign  to  accompany  the  consul  on  his 
departure  for  his  province.  He  arrived  in  Africa,  and 
brought  up  the  cavalry  contingents  to  the  camp  of  Marius, 
at  the  time  when  having  taken  Cafsa  by  storm,  he  was  be- 
leaguing  the  hill  fort  near  the  Mulucha,  which  he  took  only 
with  so  much  diflSculty,  by  following  the  suggestion  of  the 
Ligurian  snail-catcher,  as  it  is  above  recorded.  Here,  though 
previously  a  tyro,  and  utterly  unacquainted  with  military 
matters,  he  soon  became  the  ablest  and  most  energetic  ca- 
valry officer  in  the  service,  and  so  much  beloved  by  the  sol- 
diery, that  no  one  could  vie  with  him  in  popularity,  or  the 
observance  with  which  he  was  treated.  Generous  to  the  ex- 
treme and  lavish  in  his  liberality,  he  gave  largely,  lent  yet 
more  profusely,  never  required  back  his  money  at  the  hands 
of  any  one,  seemed  ever  ahxious  that  all  should  be  in  his 
debt  he  owing  nought  to  any,  jested  and  sported  with  the 
men,  marched  among  them  when  on  the  route,  watched  by 
their  bale-fires  in  the  dark  night  watches,  never  suffered 


HIS    FIRST    CAMPAIGN.  359 

any  one  to  outshine  him  when  anything  was  to  be  devised  or 
done  ;  above  all,  never  cavilled  at  the  consul,  nor  spoke  ill 
of  the  absent,  be  it  who  it  might,  and  by  these  means 
speedily  rendered  himself  incredibly  dear  both  to  Marius  and 
the  army. 

Shortly  afterward,  in  two  sharp  actions  fought  by  the 
kings  of  Mauritania  and  Numidia  united,  he  rendered  the^ 
most  signal  services  at  the  head  of  his  cavalry,  and  contri- 
buted in  the  greatest  degree  to  the  defeat  of  the  enemy, 
whose  horse  he  severely  handled  and  dispersed  by  a  sustained 
series  of  charges,  by  alternate  squadrons,  after  which  he 
dashed  his  mounted  masses  against  the  unguarded  flank  of 
the  Moorish  infantry,  until  then  victorious,  and  put  them 
utterly  to  flight. 

A  little  later  in  the  season,  when  the  consul,  after  having 
placed  his  troops  in  winter  quarters,  had  set  forth  to  attack 
one  of  Jugurtha's  isolated  strongholds,  leaving  Sylla  in  com- 
mand, with  proprsetorial  dignity,  an  embassy  sent  by  Bocchus 
of  Mauritania,  to  treat  with  Marius,  fell  into  the  hands  of  Gse- 
tulian  robbers,  the  Tuarick  Arabs,  it  is  like,  or  the  wander- 
ing hordes  of  the  Beni  Mezzah,  on  the  skirts  of  the  great 
desert  ;  and  having  with  difficulty  escaped  with  their  lives 
only,  strippiBd  of  every  thing,  by  the  sons  of  Ishmael, 
whose  hand  was  then,  as  now,  literally  against  every  man, 
received  protection  and  the  most  bountiful  hospitality  from 
the  hands  of  the  young  horse-officer,  who  farther  instructed 
them  how  they  should  approach  the  commander-in-chief,  and 
by  what  means  they  might  hope  to  gain  his  ear. 

By  this  politic  conduct  of  Sylla,  and  by  the  graceful  man- 
ner, doubling  the  favor  conferred,  with  which  he  treated  the 
proud  and  sensitive  barbarians,  the  Romans  gained  much  in 
the  estimation  of  the  Mauritanians,  and  an  interchange  of 
mutual   good  offices    led  to  such  feelings  on  the  part  of 


860  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

Bocchus,  that,  when  he  began  to  repent  him  of  his  alliance 
with  Jugurtha  and  his  falling  fortunes,  and  to  bethink  him 
of  sacrificing  that  unhappy  prince  to  his  mortal  enemies,  he 
personally  requested  that  Sylla  might  be  the  officer  entrusted 
with  the  negotiations,  and  there  is  much  reason  for  believing 
that  it  is  to  his  calm,  considerate,  politic,  yet  resolute  spirit, 
that  the  success  of  those  which  ensued,  may  be  in  great  part 
ascribed. 

Having  been  sent  into  Morocco,  with  an  escort  of  cavalry, 
bowmen,  and  a  cohort  of  Pehgnian  foot  armed,  in  light  in- 
fantry fashion,  with  slender  javelins,  round  bucklers,  and 
short  swords,  he  made  his  way  resolutely  to  the  royal  resi- 
dence, under  circumstances  in  the  highest  degree  dangerous, 
and  calculated  to  awaken  the  distrust  and  suspicions  of  the 
Komans. 

On  the  fifth  day  of  his  march,  he  encountered  Yolux,  the 
son  of  Bocchus,  at  the  head  of  about  a  thousand  horse,  who, 
according  to  their  usage,  came,  scattering  themselves  in 
small  bands  and  squadrons  over  all  the  open  country,  so  as 
to  convey  the  idea  that  they  were  in  much  larger  numbers 
than  indeed  they  were,  and  to  cause  the  Romans  to  reform 
their  ranks  and  prepare  for  immediate  action.  On  a  nearer 
approach,  however,  this  cause  of  apprehension  vanished,  and 
it  was  speedily  ascertained  that  the  company,  which  had 
called  forth  this  alarm,  was  but  intended  as  a  guard  of 
honor  and  mark  of  courtesy  to  his  guest,  by  the  despot  of 
Mauritania. 

On  the  third  day  after  this  meeting,  graver  causes  of  sus- 
picion appeared  ;  and  from  the  relation  of  the  circumstances 
it  cannot  well  be  doubted  that  treason  was  intended,  and 
that,  if  not  positively  determined,  the  surrender  to  Jugurtha 
of  the  Koman  envoys  was  seriously  meditated  by  the 
Moor.     The  camp  was  already  pitched  and  fortified,  and  the 


ESCORT    OF    VOLUX.  36] 

sun  was  already  setting  when  Yolux  came  suddenly  into 
Sylla's  quarters,  downcast  of  countenance,  confused  of 
speech,  and  seemingly  bewildered  by  terror,  informing  him 
that  he  had  just  learned,  ^om  his  advanced  videttes,  the  pre- 
sence of  Jugurtha  at  the  head  of  a  considerable  power,  who, 
doubtless,  intended  to  cut  off  the  expedition.  In  this  emer- 
gency he  urgently  counselled  Sylla  to  break  up  his  camp  at 
once,  and  retreat  by  night,  as  far  as  possible  on  his  home- 
ward route,  of  course  abandoning  the  purpose  for  which  he 
had  come  so  far  into  the  desert. 

This  Sylla  indignantly  refused  to  do,  expressing  his  perfect 
confidence  in  the  courage  of  his  own  men,  and  in  his  ability 
to  resist  ^ny  attacks  which  could  be  made  on  him  by  the 
cowardly  squadrons  of  a  thrice  beaten  foe,  and  swore  that 
at  all  risks  he  would  penetrate  to  the  palace  of  the  king,  or 
leave  his  bones  to  bleach  on  those  burning  sands,  rather  than 
turn  his  back,  he  a  Roman,  to  a  horde  of  skulking  savages. 
Nevertheless,  he  resolved  to  move  by  night,  and,  so  soon  as 
his  soldiery  had  cooked  and  supped,  decamped  silently,  leav- 
ing his  watch-fires  burning  with  sufficient  fuel  to  keep  them 
alive  until  morning.  Throughout  the  live-long  night  they 
marched  wearily,  through  the  deep  sands,  in  gloom  and  doubt, 
if  not  dismay;  and,  in  the  gray  of  the  early  dawn,  while  the 
soldiers,  harassed  and  worn  out  with  this  double  march,  were 
for  a  second  time  measuring  and  fortifying  a  camp  which 
they  were  not  destined  to  occupy,  Moorish  horsemen  came 
tearing  in,  with  bloody  spurs  and  coursers  in  a  lather,  ex- 
claiming that  Jugurtha  was  scarce  two  miles  distant,  and 
advancing  in  array  of  battle.  Sylla  himself,  no  less  than  his 
escort,  was  now  satisfied  of  the  treachery  of  Yolux  and  the 
guard  of  honor  ;  but,  though  he  made  all  his  dispositions 
and  harangued  his  troops  as  if  for  immediate  action,  he 
would  not  listen  for  a  moment  to  those  who  would  have  had 
16 


362  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

him  take  instant  vengeance  on  the  prince  ;  but,  calling  him 
aside,  and  invoking  the  Almighty  Jove  to  be  a  witness  to 
him  of  the  villainy  and  treason  of  Bocchus,  ordered  him  to 
begone  from  the  Roman  camp,  which  held  no  place  for  trai- 
tors. Thereupon,  Yolux  shedding  tears  and  protesting  his 
good  faith  and  that  of  his  father,  with  all  possible  assevera- 
tions, offered  either  to  send  his  Mauritanians  forward  in  ad- 
vance, or  to  leave  them  behind  altogether,  and  to  proceed 
alone,  with  Sylla  and  his  escort,  as  a  hostage  for  their  safety, 
through  the  middle  of  the  hordes  of  Jugurtha,  to  whose  ac- 
tivity and  subtlety  in  obtaining  information  of  his  route,  he 
attributed  all  that  had  occurred.  This  offer,  as  the  best 
thing  to  be  done  under  the  circumstances,  was'  accepted  ; 
and,  at  the  head  of  his  slender  but  dauntless  escort,  observ- 
ing everything  while  seeming  to  observe  nothing,  and  con- 
stantly on  his  guard,  though  to  all  appearance  careless  and 
perfectly  at  his  ease,  the  proud  impassive  Roman  rode  along, 
side  by  side  with  his  tawny  conductor,  chatting  and  laugh- 
ing gaily,  through  the  whole  length  of  Jugurtha's  large  and 
loose  array,  the  wild  Numidians  handling  their  weapons,  and 
bending  their  dark  brows  around  the  little  band,  which  yet 
they  dared  not  assail,  so  terrible  was  the  report  of  their 
prowess. 

Doubtless,  his  fate,  and  that  of  his  company  was  deter- 
mined; and,  had  he  taken  any  other  course  than  that  which 
he  adopted  on  the  moment,  he  would  have  been  sacrificed  to 
the  treacherous  jealousy  of  his  host  and  the  unconcealed  ma- 
lignity of  the  yet  unconquered  usurper.  But  his  firm  resolu- 
tion and  the  suddenness  of  his  action  took  Jugurtha  by 
surprise,  and  frustrated  his  design.  A  few  days  farther  and 
he  reached  the  royal  abode  of  Bocchus,  whether  at  Mequi- 
nez,  Fez,  or  Teza  does  not  appear,  where  he  was  re- 
ceived with  high  consideration  by  the  king,  with  whom  he 


TREACHERY    FRUSTRATED.  363 

had  many  interviews,  both  private  and  official,  before  the 
business  which  he  had  at  heart  was  brought  to  a  termina- 
tion. That  Bocchus  doubted  long  whether  of  the  two,  the 
Roman  or  the  Numidian,  he  should  betray  to  the  other  ; 
that  he  was  many  times  inclined  to  favor  his  kinsman,  his 
countryman  and  his  brother  king,  against  the  insolent  and 
aggressive  invader,  whom  he  hated,  only  less  than  he 
feared  him  ;  and  that  he  was  determined  only  in  the  end, 
by  his  apprehension  of  the  invinci)3le  power  and  invariable 
forward  movement  of  Rome,  never  checked  or  delayed,  but 
still  sweeping  onward,  cold,  certain,  inexorable  as  fate  itself, 
we  are  informed  by  all  the  contemporaneous  authorities ;  and, 
were  we  not  so  informed,  we  might  assume  it  as  a  fact,  for 
it  is  in  the  nature  of  man  and  the  immutable  order  of  things 
that  it  should  be  so. 

But  the  firm,  proud,  self-confident,  unswerving,  ever-tran- 
quil, but  ever  aggressive  spirit  of  the  great  aristocratical 
republic  was  admirably  represented  and  reproduced  in  the 
cool,  self-sufficient,  daring  and  arrogant  temper  of  its  youth- 
ful envoy  ;  the  versatility  of  whose  witty,  jovial,  licentious, 
easy  humor,  cold  withal,  and  hard  and  penetrating  as  steel 
"  of  the  icebrook^s  temper,"  polished  and  pliant,  yet  in- 
trenchant  and  unforgiving,  naturally  made  the  deepest  im- 
pression on  the  impulsive  and  impetuous,  yet  infirm  and  un- 
stable, temperament  of  the  Barbarian,  and  rendered  him 
but  a  toy  in  the  hands  of  the  shrewd,  resolute,  worldly-wise 
Italian. 

After  much  consultation  and  many  interviews,  Bocchus 
first  declared  that  he  would  offer  no  obstacle  to  the  Romans 
in  terminating  the  war  with  Jugurtha,  in  any  way  that  should 
suit  their  pleasure  ;  that  he  would  not  suffer  that  prince  to 
pass  the  Mulucha,  inward  into  his  own  dominions,  nor  him- 
self cross  it  outward  to  his  assistance.    But  shortly  after- 


364  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

ward,  on  Sylla's  suggestion  and  persuasion,  backed  by  the 
promises  of  vast  gifts  from  the  Senate,  and  the  concession 
of  half  the  territories  of  JNTumidia,  he  agreed,  if  possible,  to 
make  himself  master  of  Jugurtha's  person  and  deliyer  him 
up  to  the  Romans. 

Prospects  of  a  peace  with  Rome,  by  the  mediation  of 
Mauritania,  were  held  out  to  the  Numidian,  and  after  much 
vacillation,  many  misgivings,  many  suspicions,  effaced,  re- 
conceived,  and  again  overcome,  the  arch  deceiver  was  de- 
ceived to  his  rum,  and  agreed  to  an  interview  with  Sylla,  in 
the  presence  of  his  father-in-law,  who  should  act  as  media- 
tor and  arbiter  between  them. 

Until  the  very  evening  previous  to  the  interview,  the  Moor 
had  not  finally  made  up  his  mind.  At  a  late  hour  of  the 
night  he  held  a  privy  meeting  of  his  cabinet  councillors, 
and  after  some  debate,  without  disclosing  anything  of  his 
own  mind,  again  dismissed  them,  and  remained  long  in  secret 
deliberation  with  himself.  Toward  morning  he  caused 
Sylla  to  be  summoned  to  him,  and  thenceforth,  his  purpose 
being  at  length  resolved,  he  vacillated  no  longer. 

On  the  morrow,  it  being  announced  that  the  prince  was 
at  hand,  Bocchus  proceeded,  in  company  with  the  Roman 
quaestor,  and  a  few  courtiers  and  friends,  to  meet  his  kins- 
man, as  if  to  do  him  honor,  and  with  these  ascended  an 
isolated  mound  or  hillock,  in  full  view  of  his  own  troopers, 
who  were  close  at  hand  and  well  instructed  what  to  do  ; 
whither  came  Jugurtha  also,  with  a  few  personal  attendants, 
all  unarmed,  as  it  had  been  provided  in  the  articles  regulat- 
ing the  method  of  the  interview. 

Scarcely  had  he  ascended  the  side  of  the  mount,  and  ap- 
peared in  the  group  on  the  summit,  when  persons,  who  had' 
been  placed  in  ambush  near,  rushed  in  on  all  sides,  cut  to 
pieces  all  the  followers  of  the  unhappy  prince,  seized  him, 


HATRED  OF  SYLLA  AND  MARIUS.  365 

and  loading  Mm  with  fetters  delivered  him  into  Roman  dur- 
ance, soon  to  experience  at  the  hands  of  the  republic  the 
usual  fate  of  all  who  resisted  the  force  of  Roman  authority, 
and  were  reduced  to  taste  of  Roman  mercy. 

It  is  not,  perhaps,  strange  that  S jUa  should  have  so  much 
valued  and  prided  himself  on  this  occurrence — since  men  are 
not  apt  to  underrate,  but  rather  to  over  estimate,  their  early 
services  and  successes — as  to  wear  on  his  signet  ring  a  repre- 
sentation of  the  surrender  into  his  hands  of  this  formidable 
and  detested  captive.  It  was  unquestionably  an  important 
service  which  he  had  rendered  to  the  state  ;  and  it  no  less 
certain,  that  to  him  and  his  coolness  and  courage  the  merit 
of  the  capture  is  to  be  attributed. 

But  it  is  passing  strange  that  the  Mauritanian,whose  part, 
in  the  transaction  was  merely  venal  infamy,  kindred  treason, 
and  breach  of  hospitality  unpardonable  even  in  the  robber 
of  the  desert,  should  have  been  willing  to  perpetuate  the 
memory  of  his  own  baseness  in  a  group,  which  he  presented 
among  thirty  others,  of  golden  statues,  to  the  temple  of  Vic- 
tory on  the  Capitoline,  representing  himself  as  seated  on  his 
chair  of  state  delivering  his  son-in-law,  loaded  with  chains, 
to  the  Roman  Quaestor. 

This  signet  ring  kindled  the  secret  rage  of  Marius  against 
his  gallant  subaltern,  for  he  regarded  it  as  an  attempt  to 
supplant  him  in  his  rightful  claim  to  the  honor  of  terminat- 
ing the  Jugurthine  war,  forgetful  that  he  was  himself  liable 
to  the  same  accusation  from  his  predecessor  and  former  com- 
mander, Metellus  ;  and  that  Sylla,  as  an  active  member  and 
partizan  of  the  aristocratic  faction,  might  actually  be  grimly 
and  sarcastically  laughing  at  his  reclamations,  as  if  he  had 
avenged  the  wrong  done  to  his  brother  noble,  by  him  who 
now  complained  of  the  like  wrong. 

The  statues  of  Bocchus,  however,  at  a  somewhat  later 


366  LUCIUS   CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

period,  cast  the  animating  spark  into  the  smouldering  fuel, 
and,  on  the  instant,  into  intense  and  furious  hfe  started  the 
long-concealed,  but  not  dormant,  hatred. 

Nothing  prevented  that  hatred  from  kindling  half  the 
world  into  open  discord,  except  the  outbreaking,  at  that 
very  period  of  the  Marsic  or  Social  war,  in  which  both  the 
parties  were  called  to  serve  Rome  in  arms,  and  in  which 
they  both  found  new  cause  for  jealousies,  disgusts  and  rival- 
ries, which  increased  their  native  animosity,  and  involved 
the  commonwealth  itself  in  their  deadly  struggle  for 
supremacy. 

In  the  meantime,  notwithstanding  his  lurking  envy  and 
detestation  of  his  quaestor,  Marius  still  respected  his  talents 
so  highly  and  regarded  him  so  excellent  and  energetic  an 
officer,  that  he  employed  him  in  his  Teutonic  and  Cimbric 
campaigns,  during  his  second,  third,  fourth  and  fifth  consul- 
ships ;  and  was  justified,  by  the  high  distinction  of  his  ser- 
vices, and  his  entire  suppression  of  all  personal  likings  a  ad 
dislikings,  for  the  confidence  which  he  placed  in  him.  In 
the  third  of  these  campaigns,  the  Tectosages,  Gauls  of  the 
neighborhood  of  Tolosa,  in  the  Roman  province,  having 
risen  in  rebellion  and  united  their  arms  to  those  of  the  Teu- 
tons, were  left  behind  by  their  allies  during  their  wild  expe- 
dition to  the  Pyrenees  ;  and  Marius,  who  was  in  command, 
and  on  the  watch  for  the  return  of  the  most  formidable 
hordes  by  the  passages  of  the  Rhone,  entrusted  the  manage- 
ment of  this  independent  war  to  Sylla,  now  serving  as  his 
legatus,  who  conquered  the  barbarians  in  several  sharp  en- 
counters, killed  many*  of  their  bravest  chiefs  and  took  their 
kingf  Copillus.  In  the  great  battle  with  the  Cimbri,  on  the 
Raudian  plains,  Sylla  was  attached,  with  the  cavalry  division 

*  Velleius  Patercul,  II.  17— apud  Am.  Thierry. 
•  t  Plut.  vit.  Sylla  lY, 


HIS    AMBITION.  36 Y 

to  the  army  of  Catalus,  on  which  fell  the  greater  share  of 
the  hard  fighting.  But  owing  to  the  extreme  heat  and  the 
clouds  of  dust,  which  obscured  the  whole  field  of  battle,  it 
was  almost  impossible  even  for  the  immediate  actors  to  see 
what  was  passing,  and  consequently  very  little  is  known  as  to 
the  actual  occurrences  of  that  tremendous  day,  beyond  the 
mere  fact  of  its  being  won  by  the  Romans. 

In  the  year  of  Rome  651,  B.  C.  93,  fourteen  years  having 
elapsed  since  he  held  the  office  of  quaestor  under  Marius,  Sylla 
again  offered  himself  as  a  candidate  for  office,  but  not  in  the 
regular  succession  of  place,  which  was  required  by  the  forms 
of  office  ;  for,  whereas  he  ought  to  have  first  served  as  jEdile, 
he  aspired  at  once  to  the  office  of  Prsetor. 

In  this  instance,  however,  his  ambition  was  disappointed, 
not  that  the  people  were  offended  at  his  grasping  at  the 
higher  office,  contrary  to  the  routine  ;  but  that,  from  his  in- 
timacy and  supposed  correspondence  with  the  king  of  Mauri- 
tania, an  idea  prevailed  that  he  possessed  unusual  facilities 
for  procuring  strange  and  terrible  wild  beasts  from  the  in- 
terior of  Africa,  and  that  the  spectacles,  which  it  would  be 
his  duty  to  exhibit  in  the  quality  of  Jildile,  would  be  of  ex- 
traordinary rarity  and  splendor.  Perceiving,  therefore,  that 
he  was  frustrated  of  his  wishes,  he  now  caused  it  to  be  given 
out,  that,  in  case  of  his  election  the  following  year  as  Praestor, 
he  would  exhibit  the  same  shows,  which  would  have  been 
expected  of  him  in  the  inferior  capacity  ;  and  the  people, 
who  were  already  beginning  to  be  actuated  in  their  choice 
of  candidates  by  the  sordid  desire,  attributed  to  them  at  a  later 
day  by  the  great  Satirist,  for  panem  et  cir censes ,  gratuitous 
bread  and  the  spectacles  of  the  circus,  at  once  preferred  him 
to  the  post  he  coveted.  The  price,  which  he  paid  for  this  pubHc 
favor,  amounted  to  no  less  than  the  exhibition  at  one  time  of 
one  hundred  male  lions  in  the  amphitheatre,  which  were 


368  •  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

baited  to  death  by  Mauritanian  hunters,  for  the  gratification 
of  the  degraded  and  blood-thirsty  populace. 

During  the  year  of  his  praetorship,  nothing  occurred  of 
sufficient  moment  to  give  any  exercise  to  his  talents,  or  to 
afford  him  any  opportunity  for  engrossing  glory.  But,  in 
the  following  year,  he  was  sent  into  Asia,  on  a  diplomatic, 
rather  than  military,  mission,  to  reinstate  Ariobarzanes  and 
Pyloemenes,  in  their  respective  kingdoms  of  Cappadocia  and 
Paphlagonia,  of  which  they  had  been  severally  dispossessed 
by  Mithridates,  and  Nicomedes  king  of  Bithynia. 

This  duty  he  early  performed,  without  any  considerable 
Italian  force  ;  for,  raising  a  large  body  of  Cappadocians,  he 
defeated  and  cut  to  pieces  a  number  of  Armenians,  who 
attempted  to  resist  him,  and  driving  Gordius  from  his  king- 
dom established  Ariobarzanes  in  his  place.  Shortly  after 
this  cheaply  gained  success,  while  he  yet  tarried  on  the 
banks  of  the  Euphrates,  he  received  a  visit  from  Orobazus, 
the  embassador  of  the  king  of  Parthia,  who  had  never  before 
had  any  intercourse  with  the  Komans,  and  who  was,  perhaps, 
hardly  aware  of  their  national  existence,  much  less  of  their 
gigantic  and  overshadowing  power. 

And  this  Sylla  ascribes  to  himself  as  a  singular  piece  of 
good  fortune,  that  he  was  the  first  Koman  officer  to  whom 
came  an  embassy  from  this  wealthy,  arrogant,  and  remote 
barbaric  kingdom,  demanding  to  be  admitted,  according  to 
the  comity  of  nations,  to  terms  of  amity  and  alliance  with 
the  great  commonwealth  of  Italy.  Nor  did  he  fail  to  take 
advantage  of  the  circumstance  for  the  assertion  of  his  own 
dignity,  and  the  maintenance  of  the  supremacy  of  Rome  ;  for, 
having  caused  three  curule  chairs  to  be  set  for  himself,  the 
monarch  whom  he  had  restored,  and  the  envoy  of  the  great 
Parthian  king,  he  placed  himself  in  the  central  seat,  wiiich 
was  the  highest  of  the  three,  and,  sitting  there,  transacted 


OROBAZUS.  '   369 

his  affairs,  as  if  in  the  presence  of  subordinates  and  inferiors. 
This  arrogant  act  of  assumption,  which  was  praised  or 
reprobated  in  Rome,  according  as  it  was  attributed  to 
personal  insolence  and  pride,  or  to  the  proper  maintenance 
of  the  glories  of  the  Roman  name,  is  said  to  have  cost  the 
unfortunate  Orobazus  his  life  ;  his  fierce  barbarian  master, 
prouder  even  than  the  proud  Roman,  causing  him  to  be  put 
to  death,  as  his  reward  for  submitting  humbly  to  an  affront, 
which  was  considered  to  carry  something  of  degradation, 
even  to  the  regal  tiara  of  the  great  Parthian  despot.  It 
was  on  his  return  from  this  mission,  that  the  contest,  to  which 
allusion  has  been  made  above,  broke  out  between  himself 
and  Marius  in  regard  to  the  golden  statues  in  the  Capitol, 
which  the  latter  would  have  pulled  down  as  derogatory  to 
his  renown,  and  was  brought  to  a  close  only  by  the  dreadful 
war  which  khidled  all  Italy,  like  a  sudden  and  devastating 
conflagration — which  came  near  to  destroying  utterly  that 
wonderful  and  time-honored  fabric  of  Roman  power  and 
constitution — which  seemed  to  have  survived  the  succes- 
sive assaults  and  imminent  conquests  of  Gauls,  of  Greeks,  of 
Carthaginians,  Teutons  and  Cimbri,  only  to  be  driven  to  the 
very  jaws  of  destruction  by  its  own  allies  and  confederates, 
in  an  unjust  and  parricidal  conflict. 

It  is  reported  that,  at  the  time  of  his  interview  with  Oro- 
bazus the  Parthian,  a  learned  Chaldee,  a  soothsayer  by 
profession,  and  a  shrewd  judge  beside  and  scrutinizer  of  the 
thoughts,  hearts,  and  characters  of  men,  after  long  and 
earnestly  examining  the  countenance,  deportment,  and  move- 
ments of  the  propraetor,  declared  confidently  that  he  had 
that  in  him  whereof  to  make  the  greatest  of  all  living  men, 
and  that,  for  his  own  part,  he  marvelled  only  that  he  did  not 
at  once  assume  the  place  which  it  was  equally  his  right  and 
his  destiny  to  fill. 

16* 


3t0  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

However  this  may  be,  whether  as  to  the  truth  of  the 
relation,  or  to  the  effect  produced  on  the  mind  of  Sylla  by 
the  prediction,  it  is  certain  that  from  this  period  he  began 
to  aspire,  and  to  ascend  rapidly  to  the  highest  stations  in 
the  gift  of  the  Republic.  ^ 

In  the  year  of  Rome  664,  B.  C.  90,  Lucius  Julius  Csesar 
and  Publius  Rutilius  Lupus  being  consuls,  the  Marsic,  or 
Social  war,  broke  out  furiously  ;  all  the  Italian  states  of  the 
middle  and  lower  peninsula  taking  arms  simultaneously,  with 
the  avowed  determination  of  utterly  annihilating  the  power 
and  abolishing  the  very  name  of  Rome,  while  they  would 
build  up  at  Corfinium  a  new  metropolis,  which  should  be 
the  capital  of  all  Italy  consolidated,  and  the  seat  of  imperial 
dominion  for  all  freemen  of  Italian  birth. 

In  the  first  conflict  Lucius  Caesar  was  defeated  by  Yettius 
Cato  with  the  loss  of  two  thousand  men,  near  to  the  city  of 
iEsernia,  in  which  he  was  immediately  invested  ;  while  his 
colleague  Lupus  was  yet  more  disastrously  beaten  by  the 
Marsi,  remaining  himself  with  three  thousand  of  his  soldiery 
dead  on  the  field  of  battle.  In  the  following  year  Cneius 
Pompeius  Strabo  and  Porcius  Cato,  were  elected  consuls, 
the  former  of  whom  beat  the  Marsi  in  a  pitched  battle  with 
great  loss,  and  afterward  stormed  Asculum,  where  the 
troubles  had  first  commenced,  and  where  the  Romans  had 
undergone  the  worst  outrages  ;  the  second  consul  falling  gal- 
lantly in  the  attack  of  the  Marsic  entrenchments. 

In  this  war  the  Romans  had,  on  more  than  one  occasion, 
seven  independent  armies  in  the  field  together,  under  as 
celebrated  leaders  as  ever  set  battaUa  in  array  ;  such  as 
Pompeius  Strabo,  father  of  Pompey  the  Great,  Csepio, 
Marius,  Metellus,  Dolabella,  Perpenna,  Sylla,  and  Messala  ; 
more  than  three  hundred  thousand  Italians  perished,  cut  off 


SOCIAL    WAR.  8tl 

in  the  flower  of  their  age  and  prime  of  utility  to  their  coun- 
try, in  this  lamentable  civil  strife  ;  more  cities  were  taken, 
burned,  razed  to  the  ground,  so  that  their  very  sites  became 
doubtful,  than  by  Pyrrhus  and  Hannibal  together;  yet  little 
is  known  of  the  details  of  the  war,  and  yet  less  of  the  con- 
duct and  merits  of  the  generals. 

Marius,  it  is  known,  wholly  failed  to  distinguish  himself, 
chiefly,  perhaps,  from  disaffection  to  the  cause,  and  from  a 
secret  leaning  to  the  side  of  the  confederates,  whom  he 
would  not  have  been  sorry  to  see  victorious  over  the 
haughty  and  hostile  aristocracy  of  Rome,  being  himself  of 
Italian,  not  Roman,  blood  ;  and  possibly  hoping,  in 
case  of  their  success,  to  become  himself  the  head  of  the 
new  confederacy.  Before  the  conclusion  of  the  war  he  re- 
signed his  command  on  the  plea  of  nervousness — a  sin- 
gular complaint  for  one  who,  a  few  years  afterward,  waded 
chin  deep  in  civic  and  kindred  gore,  shrunk  from  no  unheard 
of  atrocity,  and  proved  himself  a  monster  of  cruelty, 
to  be  rivalled  only  by  his  fellow-fiends  of  an  after  age,  the 
French  Marat  and  Robespierre.  When  the  contest  closed 
and  the  Italians  were  admitted  to  the  city  tribes,  he  identi- 
fied himself  with  their  cause,  and  perished  as  we  have  seen 
in  the  attempt  with  their  aid  to  subvert  the  constitution, 
annihilate  the  liberties,  and  destroy  all  the  legitimate  de- 
fenders of  the  country,  under  whose  banners  he  had  won  his 
glorious  laurels,  and  whose  highest  magistracies  he  had  filled 
oftener,  if  not  more  splendidly,  than  any  other  man  who  had 
lived,  or  should  live  thereafter,  to  the  end  of  Roman  time. 

Sylla's  career  was  more  fortunate  as  well  as  more  glorious, 
both  in  regard  to  his  civic  principles  and  his  miUtary  skill  ; 
and  to  him,  with  Strabo,  the  conqueror  of  Asculum,  is 
ascribed  the  principal  credit  for  bringing  to  a  close  this 
cruel  and  unnatural  strife,  and  restoring  at  least  a  temporary 


3*12  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

tranquillity  to  the  land.  As  his  reward,  on  the  cessation  of 
hostilities,  he  was  raised  in  the  year  of  Rome  666,  98  B.  C, 
to  the  office  of  consul,  in  the  nineteenth  year  after  his  first 
service  in  the  Jugurthine  war  under  Marius,  and  the  forty- 
ninth  of  his  age,  being  seven  years  later  than  the  legitimate 
period  when  he  might  have  been  constitutionally  preferred 
to  that  exalted  position.  Macedonia,  with  the  war  against 
Mithridates,  whose  gigantic  strides  towards  universal  domi- 
nion now  principally  excited  the  apprehensions  of  Rome,  and 
rendered  it  necessary  to  her  safety  that  he  should  be  sum- 
marily checked  in  his  career  of  Oriental  conquest,  was 
allotted  to  him  as  his  province. 

No  doubt,  in  the  commencement  of  the  war  with 
Mithridates,  as  generally  was  the  case  with  Roman 
hostilities,  the  Republic  was  in  the  wrong  ;  as  this  great 
struggle  arose  from  the  unjust  interference  of  the 
Commonwealth  in  the  internal  affairs  of  Asia  Minor,  and 
its  deposition  from  the  throne  of  Cappadocia,  of  Ariara- 
thes,  the  son  of  Mithridates,  whom  he  had  raised  to  the 
dignity  of  king  of  that  country,  on  the  failure  of  the  direct 
line  of  Cappadocian  kings,  who  were  of  a  cognate  race  to 
his  own,  bearing  the  hereditary  title  of  Ariarathes,  from 
a  period  prior  to  the  conquests  of  Alexander  the  Great. 

Who  was  the  rightful  successor  and  nearest  heir  to  that 
ancient  barbaric  throne,  cannot  now  be  readily  ascertained  ; 
nor  does  it  in  truth  greatly  matter  to  the  reader  of  history. 
Barbarous  oriental  dynasties  have  never  at  any  time  main- 
tained direct  hereditary  successions  ;  foreign  conquests,  do- 
mestic usurpations,  and  kindred  murders,  being  of  occurrence 
so  frequent,  that  they  often  outnumber  the  instances  of  direct 
transmission  of  royal  authority.  At  all  events,  whether 
Ariarathes  the  son  of  Mithridates,  Ariobarzanes  the  Cappa- 
docian pretender,  who  was  supported  by  the  Romans,  or 


MITHRIDATIC    VfAR.  3T3 

some  other  person  descended  more  closely  from  the  extinct 
dynasty,  had  the  legal  right  to  succeed,  it  is  perfectly  clear 
that  the  Romans  had  no  plea  of  right  whatever,  nor  any 
pretext  for  interference  in  a  country  so  remote  as  Cappa- 
docia,  and  so  widely  severed  from  all  their  interests  and  con- 
nexions. 

Against  Ariarathes,  then,  they  stirred  up  Nicomedes,  king 
of  Bithynia,  and  raised  three  armies  of  the  weak  and  unwar- 
like  Asiatics,  under  the  Roman  generals,  Lucius  Cassius,* 
and  Oppius,  with  orders  to  dethrone  Ariarathes,  and  drive 
him  from  his  kingdom.  But  the  fortune  and  skill  of  Mithri- 
dates  prevailed  ;  Nicomedes  was  conquered  in  a  pitched  bat- 
tle, and  his  forces  were  so  completely  routed  and  dispersed, 
that  the  war  was  terminated  by  that  one  defeat.  The  native 
armies  under  the  Romans  offered  no  resistance  worthy  of  the 
name,  and  Mithridates,  advancing  steadily  westward,  was 
everywhere  hailed  as  a  deliverer  by  the  Greek  cities,  both 
of  Asia  Minor  and  Europe,  so  bitterly  did  they  detest  the 
heavy  yoke,  which,  under  the  name  of  liberty  and  self-gov- 
ernment, the  Commonwealth  had  imposed  upon  them. 

Up  to  this  time  Mithridates  had  in  no  respect  overstepped 
the  limits  of  national  self-defence,  violated  the  laws  of  war,  or 
in  any  way  aggressed  upon  the  Romans.  But,  at  this  period, 
having  made  himself  master  of  all  the  Greek  Asiatic  isles 
and  cities,  he  committed  an  atrocious  crime  and  no  less 
flagrant  political  error,  by  issuing  a  circular  to  all  his  pre- 
fects, satraps,  and  military  or  naval  officers,  that,  on  the 
thirtieth  day  thereafter,  every  free-born  Roman  or  Italian 
citizen,  man,  woman,  or  child,  should  be  put  to  the  sword, 
and  thrown  into  the  fields  unburied.  To  all  slaves,  who 
should  murder  their  masters,  freedom  was  proclaimed  ;  to 
all  debtors,  slaughtering  their  creditors,  half  the  vacant 
*  Appian  de  bello  Mithridat.  XXII. 


3*T4  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

estates  were  decreed  as  a  reward  ;  to  all  who  should  assist  or 
shelter  a  living  Roman,  or  bury  an  Italian  corpse,  death  was 
the  penalty.  In  one  day,  vast  numbers  of  Romans  and  Italians, 
principally  of  the  quality  of  equites,  the  publicans,  revenue-far- 
mers, extortioners  and  oppressors  of  the  people,  perished  under 
circumstances  of  aggravated  cruelty  and  insult.  The  num- 
ber of  persons  slain  is  variously  stated  by  Dr.  Schmitz  at 
80,000,  and  M.  Michelet  at  100,000  souls  ;  but  I  can  jQnd 
no  verificafion  of  these  numbers  in  Appian,  Plutarch,  Livy, 
or  other  authorities  which  they  quote,  and  am  inclined  to 
hold  with  Mr.  Ferguson,  in  his  Roman  Republic,  that  "  the 
number  of  persons  who  perished  in  this  massacre,  if  ever 
known,  is  nowhere  mentioned."  * 

There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  the  massacre  did  occur, 
with  unusual  instances  of  barbarity  ;  that  it  comprehended 
all  the  Italians  f  naturalized  in  the  country  ;  and — which  is 
proved  by  the  universality  and  completeness  of  the  carnage — 
that  it  is  attributable  no  less  to  the  prevalent  hatred  of 
Rome,  than  to  the  orders  of  the  despot.  Thereafter  Mithri- 
dates  took  possession  of  Cos,  and  most  other  islands  of  the 
Archipelago,  Rhodes  only  fortifying  her  harbors  and  closing 
her  cities  against  him,  and  giving  shelter  to  all  the  Italian 
fugitives  who  escaped  from  the  main  ;  then  sailing  to  Egypt 
he  made  himself  master  of  Alexander  the  heir  to  the  throne, 
and  plundered  the  royal  treasuries  of  Cleopatra  of  much  bul- 
lion, many  works  of  art,  statues  and  precious  gems,  and 
much  feminine  apparel,  with  which  he  returned  triumphantly 
to  Pontus. 

Shortly  after  these  occurrences,  in  the  year  of  Rome  666 
— B.  C.  88 — Archelaus,  the  king^s  general,  having  taken  pos- 

*  Livy  Epit.  78.  quidquid  civium  Romanorum  in  Asia  fuit,  uno  die 
trucidatum  est. 

t  Appian  bell.  Mithridat.  XXIII.  daoc  yevovg  'IraXcKov. 


MARIUS    AND    SULPICIUS.  '375 

session  of  Delos  and  other  places  which  revolted  from  Athens, 
and  slain  about  two  thousand  men,  principally  Romans,  made 
himself  master  of  the  Piraeus  ;  collected  all  the  treasures, 
brought  from  Delphi,  in  the  Acropolis  ;  and  constituting 
Aristion,  an  Athenian,  tyrant  of  Athens,  slew  all  the  Ko- 
manizing  Greeks  in  the  city,  reduced  the  whole  of  Boeotia  to 
subjection,  and  gained  an  immensely  strong  foothold  in  Upper 
Greece.  Meanwhile  the  gigantic  army  of  Mithridates,  con- 
sisting, it  is  said,  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men, 
with  a  gorgeous  array  of  splendidly  caparisoned  cavalry, 
vast  bodies  of  archery  and  skirmishers,  and  a  train  of  scythe- 
winged  chariots,  wherewith  to  sweep  the  plains,  was  collecting 
in  the  wide  champaigns  of  Thessaly  and  Macedonia,  where  the 
nature  of  the  country  especially  favored  equestrian  operations, 
and  presented  a  power,  with  which  no  Roman  force  in  Greece 
had  a  chance  of  coping. 

It  was  exactly  at  this  moment,  when  Roman  citizens  had 
been  slaughtered  in  the  most  savage  and  unprecedented  man- 
ner, when  one  Roman  general,  Oppius,  had  been  publicly 
mocked  as  he  was  carried  a  prisoner  through  all  the  towns 
of  Asia  Minor  ;  and  another,  Manius  Aquilius,  had  been 
killed  by  pouring  molten  gold  down  his  throat,  when  Corne- 
lius Sylla  the  consul  had  been  ordered  to  take  command  of 
six  legions  lying  in  Campania,  the  only  disposable  force  in 
Italy,  and  proceed  to  Greece  in  order  to  defend  it  against 
this  formidable  foe,  that  Marius  and  his  infamous  tool  the 
tribune  Sulpicius,  filled  the  streets  of  Rome  with  sedition 
and  anarchy,  and  finally  brought,  for  the  first  time  since  the 
entrance  of  the  Gauls,  hostile  armies  to  do  battle  within  the 
very  walls  of  Rome. 

Young  Pompeius,  the  son  of  the  present  consul,  and  son- 
in-law  of  Sylla,  was  murdered  in  the  market-place  by  the 
gladiators    of  Sulpicius  ;      all   order  was  at   an  end,  and 


3*16  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

Ma,rius,  with  his  friend,  held  absolute  rule  in  the  city,  an- 
nulling the  decrees  of  the  Senate  by  irregular  and  unconsti- 
tutional street  assemblies  of  the  mob,  and  exercising  perfect 
sovereignty  over  the  city  and  state.  Their  first  move  was 
to  abrogate  the  command  of  Sylla  in  the  Mithridatic  war, 
to  which  he  had  been  formally  and  legally  appointed  by  the 
Senate,  and  to  nominate  Marius  in  his  place.  This  whilom 
hero  and  idol  of  the  people,  was  now  a  feeble,  obese,  old 
man  of  seventy,  who  had  already  resigned  his  command  in 
one  war,  on  the  plea  of  nervousness  and  infirmity  ;  who  had 
of  late  given  himself  up  entirely  to  avaricious  money-hoard- 
ing, and  foul  debauchery  in  his  beautiful  mansion  at  Mise- 
num  ;  and  who,  now  since  the  Mithridatic  war  had  broken 
out,  promising  opportunities  for  gratifying  his'  taste  for 
rapine  and  his  lust  for  fame,  had  been  making  himself  the 
laughing  stock  of  the  people,  by  exercising  himself  in  arms 
and  practising  athletic  arts  in  the  Campus  Martins,  with  his 
bloated  body,  hoary  head,  blood-shot  eyes,  and  attenuated 
and  effete  limbs,  unable  to  support  the  weight  of  a  buckler, 
among  the  youth  of  Home. 

Sylla  was  already  with  his  army,  on  the  point  of  embark- 
ing, when  this  atrocious  act  of  injustice  and  violence  was 
committed  ;  but  when  the  officers  came  to  the  camp  with 
instructions  to  receive  the  command  at  his  hands  in  the  name 
of  Marius,  the  soldiers  rose  in  tumult,  stoned  the  commis 
sioners  to  death,  and  called  on  Sylla  to  lead  them  to  Rome, 
in  order  to  restore  the  authority  of  the  Senate,  and  reinstate 
the  magistrates  in  their  constitutional  power. 

Now  it  is  not  denied  or  disputed  that  Sylla  and  Pompeius 
Rufus  were  the  true  and  authorized  magistrates  of  the  state, 
that  the  city  and  state  were  completely  in  the  hands  of  a 
violent,  unscrupulous  and  lawless  faction,  and  that  the  Senate, 
under  instant  fear  of  their  lives,  dared  not  resist  the  usurp- 


BREACH    OF   THE    CONSTITUTION.  3^ 

ers,  nor  had  it  in  their  power  to  command  the  consuls,  as  it 
was  their  duty  to  do  in  similar  emergencies,  *'  to  see  that 
the  Republic  took  no  harm." 

The  absence  of  such  instructions  renders  the  subsequent 
conduct  of  Sylla,  whatever  might  have  been  his  intentions, 
no  less  lawless  than  that  of  his  rival ;  and  it  is  greatly  to 
his  reproach  that  it  must  be  recorded,  that  he  was  the  first 
one  who  marched  a  Roman  army,  under  the  ensigns  and 
bearing  the  arms  of  the  commonwealth,  against  the  walls  of 
Rome.  Whatever  his  private  provocations  and  resentments, 
as  an  officer  of  the  republic  he  had  no  justification  for  turn- 
ing against  any  portion  of  the  citizens  the  weapons  entrusted 
to  him  by  all  for  the  defence  of  all,  unless  under  the  most 
positive  and  unquestionable  orders  of  the  proper  authorities  ; 
and  whatever  might  seem  to  him  the  emergency  of  the  times 
and  the  peril  to  the  state,  as  a  portion  only  of  the  executive, 
endowed  with  neither  legislative  nor  judicial  powers,  he  had 
no  right  to  construe  the  wishes,  or  anticipate  the  commands 
of  the  Senate.  For  this  breach  of  law  and  order  he  must 
be  justly  held  responsible,  although  his  great  moderation 
and  abstinence  from  any  effort  at  self-aggrandisement,  would 
seem  to  show  that  thus  far,  at  least,  he  had  simply  the  re- 
constitution  of  the  state  at  heart,  and  had  no  personal  ends 
or  aims  to  gratify.  Nor  is  his  conduct  to  be  the  less  re- 
gretted, because  it  is  by  one,  professing  to  be  a  zealous  friend 
and  conservator  of  the  constitution,  that  this  fundamental 
principle  thereof  was  violated,  that  no  officer  should  enter 
the  walls  of  Rome  while  he  held  the  military  imperium,  or 
was  even  in  command  of  an  army,  much  more  at  its  head. 

From  this  unhappy  day  this  clause  fell  into  absolute  dis- 
use, or  was  at  least  so  habitually  violated,  by  every  miUtary 
chief  who  chose  to  esteem  himself  or  his  faction  wronged, 
or  who  was  ambitious  of  honors  or  powers  greater  than  he 


3^8  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

possessed,  that  from  this  date,  to  the  downfall  of  the  Repub- 
lic, Rome,  more  frequently  than  not,  was  under  direct  mili- 
tary occupation. 

It  was  Marius,  who  in  the  first  instance,  designedly  and 
traitorously,  so  altered  the  constitution  of  Roman  armies 
that  the  soldiers  in  fact  ceased  to  be  citizens,  and  could  be 
used  by  their  leaders,  on  whom  alone  they  depended,  against 
the  state  ;  but  it  must  be  admitted  that  Sylla  is  the  first 
who  did  so  use  a  Roman  army  ;  and  to  him  the  guilt  of  that 
first  example  and  of  all  the  horrors  that  ensued,  must  be 
ascribed  by  impartial  history. 

When  it  was  known  that  Sylla,  stung  by  his  wrongs,  was 
in  full  march  on  Rome,  at  the  head  of  six  legions  devoted 
to  his  will,  not  Marius,  Sulpicius,  and  their  infamous  adhe- 
rents, but  the  Senate  itself  and  all  the  best  citizens  were 
appalled  and  shocked  ;  those  at  their  present  peril,  these  at 
the  awful  precedent,  and  the  terrible  uses  to  which  it  might 
be  perverted. 

A  deputation  was  sent  out  by  the  senators  to  meet  the 
army  and  arrest  its  progress  by  representations  and  com- 
mands to  its  leader  ;  but  he,  having  encountered  them,  not 
many  miles  from  the  city,  and  having  lulled  their  apprehen- 
sions by  pretending  to  encamp  on  the  spot,  as  if  to  await 
farther  orders,  despatched  squadrons  close  on  their  heels, 
seized  the  Coelian  and  Colline  gates,  with  two  detachments, 
the  latter  headed  by  his  colleague  Pompeius  Rufus,  the 
wooden  bridge  of  the  Janiculum  with  a  third,  and  held  the 
main  body  of  his  host  in  reserve  without  the  walls,  in 
person. 

Marius  and  Sulpicius,  though  terror-stricken,  made  a  des- 
perate effort  to  defend  their  usurpation,  proclaimed  freedom 
to  the  slaves,  armed  them,  occupied  the  capitol  in  force,  and 
attempted  to  defend  the  streets  by  barricades,  and  a  galling 


CONSULAR   ELECTIONS.  8*19 

discharge  of  missiles  from  the  housetops  upon  the  soldiery 
embarrassed  in  the  narrow  thoroughfares. 

But  Sylla.  whose  blood  was  up,  and  who  was  thoroughly 
in  earnest,  ordered  the  houses  to  be  set  on  fire,  seizing  a 
torch  himself  for  the  purpose,  and  commanding  the  house- 
tops to  be  swept  with  flights  of  flaming  arrows,  soon  cleared 
the  streets,  forced  his  enemies  to  evacuate  the  town,  and 
causing  the  legions  to  bivouac  in  the  streets  and  markets, 
set  watches  and  instituted  patroles  to  prevent  mischief,  as  if 
in  a  captured  city. 

Order  was  speedily  restored,  no  violence  was  done  either 
to  person  or  property,  the  conflagration  was  quickly  mas- 
tered, and  on  the  following  morning  the  senate  regularly 
convened  by  the  consuls,  pronounced  sentence  of  death 
against  Marius,  Sulpicius,  and  about  twelve  others,  at  the 
utmost,  of  the  rebels,  confirmed  Pompeius  and  Sylla  in  their 
magistracies  and  provincial  commands,  and  resumed  their  in- 
terrupted functions  in  the  state. 

The  death  of  Sulpicius,  and  the  escape  of  Marius  to 
commit  fresh  crimes  and  work  farther  ruin  to  his  country, 
have  been  recorded  in  the  life  of  the  great  plebeian.  Few 
others  fell,  and  none  undeservedly  or  innocent.  The  soldiers 
evacuated  the  city  ;  and,  the  time  of  the  elections  for  the  en- 
suing year  having  arrived,  Sylla  presided  at  the  consular 
comitia,  and  abstained  so  truly  from  exerting  his  power,  or 
even  his  influence,  that  he  offered  no  opposition  to  Lucius 
Cornelius  Cinna,  though  a  close  friend  and  factious  partisan 
of  Marius,  but  suffered  him  to  be  elected  in  conjunction 
with  his  own  friend,  Cneius  Octavius,  a  man  of  good  repute, 
and  a  supporter  of  the  constitution ;  exacting  this  condition 
only  from  the  former  candidate,  that  he  would  attempt  no- 
thing against  the  state  or  contrary  to  his  proper  honor, 
during*  his  absence  from  the  state. 

*  Plut.  vit.  Sylla3  V. 


380  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

This  praise,  therefore,  is  justly  due  to  him,  that  he  caused 
not  to  be  shed  one  drop  of  civic  blood  on  his  own  personal 
account,  that  he  aimed  at  no  personal  aggrandizement  or 
gain  of  wealth,  but  that,  when  *  it  was  in  his  power  to  ren- 
der himself  absolute  monarch,  he  quietly  withdrew  from  the 
city,  and  proceeded  to  perform  the  duties  of  his  station, 
against  the  enemies  of  his  country  in  that  place  to  which  his 
country  had  commanded  him. 

It  was  in  the  close  of  the  year  of  his  own  consulship  that 
he  was  on  the  point  of  setting  out  for  Nola,  whither  his  army 
had  returned,  after  Cinna  and  Octavius  had  been  elected 
consuls  for  the  ensuing  year,  667  of  the  city  and  81  B.C., 
when  he  was  once  more  delayed  by  the  seditious  proceedings 
of  the  opposite  party. 

Desperate  and  defeated,  this  faction  had  yet  the  insolence 
and  influence  to  procure  the  shameless  aid  of  one  Yirgilius, 
a  tribune  of  the  people,  who  moved  to  impeach  Sylla  for  the 
illegality  of  his  late  proceedings,  hoping  thereby  to  prevent 
his  assumption  of  his  command  against  Mithridates.  But 
Sylla,  though  the  illegality  of  his  course  is  undeniable, 
legally  disembarrassed  himself  of  this  factious  annoyance, 
taking  advantage  of  the  Memmian  law,  which  forbad  proceed- 
ings against  persons  setting  forth  on  military  service.  Then 
putting  himself  at  once  at  the  head  of  his  five  legions,  in  ad- 
dition to  some  supernumerary  cohorts  of  infantry  and  troops 
of  horse,  he  marched  through  Italy  to  Brundusium,  now 
Brindisi,  the  usual  port  of  embarkation  for  Greece,  where 
he  took  ship,  landed  at  Dyrrachium,  the  modern  Durazzo, 
and  thence,  levying  contributions  for  the  support  of  his  army 
as  he  proceeded,  descended  by  JEtolia  and  Thessaly  into 
Boeotia,  which  returned  to  the  Romans  as  easily  as  it  had 
been  before  brought  over  to  the  king. 

*  Appian  de  Bell  Civ.  LXIII. 


THE    PIR^US.  381 

At  this  time  Archelaus,  the  general  of  Mithridates,  held 
the  Piraeus,  or  port  of  Athens,  one  of  the  most  strongly  for- 
tified places  in  the  ancient  world,  being  defended  and  con- 
nected with  the  upper  town  by  the  superb  long  walls,  erected 
by  Pericles  during  the  Peloponnesian  war,  not  less  than  sixty 
feet  in  height,*  wrought  in  huge  blocks  of  squared  stone  ; 
while  the  tyrant  Aristion,  an  Epicurean  philosopher  by 
orpgin,  but  now  a  stipendiary  of  Mithridates,  held  the  city 
itself,  with  its  Acropolis,  heaven-reaching  temples,  and  al- 
most impregnable  fortresses,  which  had  set  Xerxes  himself 
at  defiance.  Those  in  the  Piraeus  were  well  supplied  with 
food,  provisions  and  material  of  war  of  all  kinds  ;  for  Mith- 
ridates was  completely  master  of  the  sea,  sweeping  it  in  all 
directions  with  his  victorious  squadrons,  and  shutting  up  the 
Rhodians,f  now  the  second  naval  state  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean, in  their  harbors.  Since  the  termination  of  the  Punic 
wars  and  their  relief  from  all  apprehensions  on  the  score  of 
their  formidable  maritime  rivals,  the  Romans  appear  to  have 
entirely  neglected  t^eir  marine,  and  merely  maintaining  small 
coasting  squadrons  to  co-operate  with  their  land  forces,  to 
have  allowed  the  empire  of  the  seas  to  fall  to  whomsoever  it 
would,  even  to  the  merest  piratical  barbarians,  who  were  not 
reduced  without  considerable  trouble  and  expense  by  Pom- 
pey  the  Great,  as  he  was  somewhat  absurdly  styled,  and  the 
far  greater  Caesar. 

During  the  whole  summer  of  the  first  year  of  his  war, 
Sylla  assailed  the  Piraeus  desperately,  but  in  vain.  After 
attempting  escalades  several  times,  all  of  which  failed  from 
the  difficulty  of  procuring  ladders  of  adequate  length  suffi- 
ciently strong  for  the  purpose,  and  from  the  extreme  height 
and  strength  of  the  works,  he  fell  back,  worn  out  and  weary,  to 

♦  Appian  de  Bell.     Mithrid.  XXX. 
t  Ibid.  XXX. 


382  '         LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

Eleusis  and  the  Megarense  until  he  could  bring  materials  of 
all  kinds,  iron,  cordage,  and  military  machines  from  Thebes 
in  Boeotia.  The  beautiful  groves  of  the  Lyceum  and  Aca- 
deme were  felled  to  supply  timber  to  the  besiegers  ;  towers 
were  raised,  and  a  huge  mound  thrown  up,  against  the  for- 
tress, and  engines  of  the  largest  and  most  formidable  kind 
were  kept  constantly  playing  against  the  walls.  ' 

But,  on  the  whole,  little  or  nothing  was  effected.  »  A 
dashing  sortie,  by  which  Archelaus,  sallying  out  with  his 
infantry  in  mass,  fiercely  assailed  the  working  parties  of  the 
Romans  in  front,  while  he  launched  his  cavalry  to  the  right 
and  left,  in  order  to  overwhelm  them,  was  repulsed.  For 
Athenian  partizans  of  Rome  within  the  walls  had  contrived 
to  convey  information  of  the  intended  outbreak  to  the  be- 
siegers, and  Sylla  had  consequently  a  supporting  force, 
ambushed  at  hand,  sufficient  not  only  to  protect  his  men  in 
the  trenches,  but  to  beat  back  the  Asiatics  in  brilliant  style, 
slaying  many  and  driving  more  into  the  sea.  Shortly  after 
this  failure,  however,  having  erected  great'  internal  mounds, 
and  cavaliers  overlooking  his  own  defences  and  the  works  of 
the  enemy,  Archelaus  collected  fresh  powers  from  Chalcis 
and  the  Islands,  and  armed  all  the  rowers  of  his  fleet  ;  when, 
being  vastly  superior  in  numbers  to  the  besiegers,  he  again 
broke  out,  torch  in  hand,  at  dead  of  night,  and  cut  down, 
burned,  and  destroyed  all  the  great  assailing  works  and 
engines  of  the  Romans.  But  so  great  was  the  activity  and 
perseverance  of  the  Roman  general,  that  within  ten  days  every- 
thing he  had  lost  was  replaced  ;  and  the  enemy  was  as  hard 
pressed  as  before,  until  having  erected  other  counter-works 
on  his  walls,  and  being  reinforced  by  another  Asiatic  army 
under  Dromichsetes,  the  daring  and  energetic  governor  once 
more  led  his  whole  garrison  into  the  field  by  all  his  gates  at 
once,  lining  his  heavy  infantry  with  archery  and  slingers,  and 


SORTIE    EN    MASSE.  383 

fell  so  furiously  on  the  Koman  lines  that  he  made  a  serious 
impression  for  a  considerable  time,  and  was  only  checked 
when  Muraena  brought  up  the  reserves,  and  rallied  the 
shaken  legions,  not  without  considerable  effort.  Fortunately, 
at  this  moment  a  legion  came  np,  which  had  been  out  wood- 
ing and  foraging  ;  and  this  fresh  body,  supported  by  the 
camp-followers,  slaves  and  degraded  legionaries,  renewed 
the  combat  so  fiercely  that  the  besieged  were  driven  in,  with 
a  loss  of  two  thousand  men  left  dead  on  the  field  ;  and  that 
Archelaus  himself,  fighting  desperately  to  the  last,  was  shut 
out  of  the  gates,  and  only  escaped  capture,  being  hoisted  by 
ropes  over  the  battlements. 

After  this  bloody  but  indecisive  affair,  Sylla  drew  off  his 
men  and  placed  them  in  winter  quarters,  fortifying  himself 
#ith  deep  ditches  cut  from  sea  to  sea,  which  were  intended 
to  prevent  the  assaults  of  the  numerous  and  excellent  caval- 
ry of  the  enemy ;  but,  as  his  men  toiled  daily  at  these 
gigantic  works,  they  were  engaged  in  almost  hourly,  now 
about  the  trenches,  now  close  up  to  the  walls,  the  orientals 
sallying  in  dense  masses  and  plying  them  with  darts,  stones, 
and  vast  leaden  balls  hurled  from  the  catapults.  Still,  how- 
ever, the  siege  continued  with  unabated  fury  on  both  sides. 
On  one  occasion,  treasonable  information  from  within  being 
conveyed  to  Sylla,  that  Archelaus  would  endeavor  to  rein- 
force the  upper  town  and  revictual  it,  being  now  hard 
pressed  for  provision,  he  was  enabled  to  seize  the  convoy  and 
cut  off  the  detachment  engaged  in  escorting  it.  On  another, 
some  Romans  having  actually  escaladed  the  walls  of  the 
Piraeus  and  effected  a  lodgment  on  the  rampart,  were  over- 
thrown by  a  desperate  rally  and  cast  back  headlong  into 
their  own  lines  by  an  attack  so  impetuous,  that  the  pursuers 
from  the  city  entered  the  trenches  pell-mell  with  them,  and 
narrowly  missed  destroying  the  remainder  of  the  works  and 


384  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA.      « 

engiues  of  the  Romans — a  catastrophe  prevented  only  by 
the  arrival  of  Sylla  in  person  with  reinforcements  from  the 
camp,  who  by  desperate  exertions,  toiling  and  fighting  hand 
to  hand  through  the  whole  night,  like  a  common  soldier, 
succeeded  in  re-establishing  the  combat,  and  about  daybreak 
repulsed  the  enemy.  Then  bringing  twenty  vast  catapults 
to  bear  at  once  on  the  huge  tower  of  Archelaus,  from  his 
own  battering  tower,  he  so  shook  and  maltreated  the  former, 
that  the  besieged  perforce  withdrew  it  to  preserve  it  from 
total  destruction.  Thus  passed  the  first  campaign  of  the 
Mithridatic  war  ;  and,  it  may  be  said,  with  no  advantage 
to  the  Romans.  *Never  was  place  more  skilfully  or  more 
resolutely  defended  than  Athens  ;  for  Aristion,  in  the  upper 
city,  knew  ttiat-he  could  hope  no  quarter  for  himself  or  his 
adherents,  and  resolved  to  sell  his  life  at  the  dearest ;  while 
Archelaus,  who  was  a  thorough  soldier  and  well  aware  of 
the  importance  of  time  in  war,  made  a  defence  such  as  has 
never  been  surpassed  in  warfare,  and  which  deserved,  if  it 
might  not  command,  success. 

The  city  was  now  sorely  pressed  by  famine  ;  everything 
edible  had  been  consumed,  to  the  vilest  animals,  the  grass 
from  the  ramparts,  sword-belts  and  sandal-leathers,  and 
things  obscene  and  indescribable  ;  yet  the  feeble  and  famish- 
ing garrison  would  not  surrender  to  the  Romans,  too  well 
aware  of  the  nature  of  Rome's  mercy,  to  come  voluntarily 
into  its  clutches.  With  treachery  within  and  Sylla's  energy 
without,  no  effort  of  Archelaus,  and  he  tried  all,  could 
suffice  to  throw  succors  and  provisions  into  the  town.  All 
he  could  do  was  to  counter-plot,  and  when  Sylla,  informed 
of  his  intentions,  ambushed  his  victualling  parties,  to  sally 
on  his  trenches  with  fire  and  sword. 

Once  his  works  were  completely  sapped  and  battered  ; 
and  the  huge  walls,  being  undermined,  were  supported  only  by 


SAP    AND    RETRENCHMENT. 

vast  props  of  timber,  wliicli  were  in  their  turn  fire 
besiegers  with  such  masses  of  pitch,  and  piles  of  tow\  ^ 
with  sulphur,  that  the  flames  were  unquenchable  and., 
durable.  Then  the  whole  immense  fabric  of  Pericles 
came  thundering  down,  with  such  a  roar  and  so  sudden  a 
ruin,  that  it  appalled  the  Roman  legions,  and  struck  terror 
to  the  souls  of  the  garrison,  many  of  whom  were  crushed 
and  confounded  in  the  downfall.  Yet,  even  under  this  fear- 
ful disadvantage,  Archelaus  maintained  his  credit  as  a  gen- 
eral, and  saved  his  post,  when  all  indeed  seemed  desperate. 
With  several  wide  and  practicable  breaches  open,  he  fought 
so  resolutely  himself,  and  animated  his  men  to  such  stubborn 
and  immovable  resistance,  that  the  very  ruins  were  found  no 
less  inexpugnable  than  the  uninjured  ramparts  ;  and  that 
Sylla  was  forced,  at  the  sword's  point,  with  his  best  men, 
down  to  the  foot  of  the  breach  ;  when  most  unwillingly  he 
called  off  the  stormers  with  the  trumpet,  having  undergone 
a  loss  at  least  as  great,  as  that  he  had  inflicted  on  the  enemy. 

During  the  hours  of  darkness,  the  noble  governor  so  com- 
pletely retrenched  the  breaches,  with  a  new  concave  ram- 
part, constructed  out  of  the  rubbish,  that,  when  on  the  mor- 
row, the  Romans  rushed  into  the  cul  de  sac,  resolute  to  win 
and  anticipating  little  difficulty  in  battering  the  soft,  new- 
built  masonry,  they  were  overwhelmed  by  such  volleys  of 
missiles  from  above,  in  front,  and  ravaged  by  such  a  cross 
fire  of  artillery  from  the  flanks,*  afforded  by  the  junction  of 
the  old  rampart  with  the  new  retrenchment,  as  drove  them 
back  wholly  dismayed  and  defeated,  and  compelled  their 
leader  to  resign  all  ideas  of  taking  the  Piraeus,  so  defended, 
by  storm,  sap,  or  escalade. 

But  the  fall  of  Athens  was  decreed,  in  spite  of  the  gal- 
lantry of  its  defenders.     The  spring  of  86  B.  C,  was  now 

*  Appian  de  Bell.  Mltkridat.  XXXVII. 
17 


386  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

far  advanced  ;  and  the  city,  entirely  circumvallated,  and 
surrounded  by  deep  trenches,  had  been  strictly  blockaded 
for  above  a  year,  besides  receiving  and  repelling  almost  daily 
assaults  from  the  enemy  ;  when  it  was  reported  to  Sylla 
that  the  garrison  were  feeding  on  their  own  dead,  and  were 
so  weak,  both  in  morale  and  physique,  that-  a  storm  could 
no  longer  be  supported.  To  this  method  recourse  was  again 
had,  and  at  length  successfully.  The  walls  were  carried  by 
escalade,  and  at  the  same  moment  by  sap,  at  the  dead  of 
night,  Sylla  entering,  sword  in  hand,  at  the  breach  between 
the  Piraean  and  the  Sacred  gate,  with  wild  blasts  of  trum- 
pets and  war  horns,  and  the  fierce  shouts  of  the  infuriated 
legionaries,  rushing  unchecked  to  rape,  massacre  and  pillage. 
So  dreadful  was  the  carnage,  that,  even  to  the  days  of  Plu- 
tarch* marks  were  shown  on  the  walls  how  deep  had  stood 
the  blood  of  the  victims  ;  that  all  the  Ceramicus,  within  the 
gates,  was  afloat  with  gore  ;  and  that,  according  to  eye-wit- 
nesses, the  ghastly  torrent  streaming  through  the  crevices 
of  the  portals  deluged  the  barbican  and  gate-house. 

Sylla,  it  is  said,  was  personally  enraged  at  the  scurril 
taunts  and  ribaldry  which  had  been  continually  launched 
against  him  from  the  walls  by  the  defenders,  who  did  not 
even  spare  the  name  of  his  wife,  the  noble  Csecilia  Metella, 
and  this  was  his  revenge.  That  he  was  not  a  man  incapable 
of  taking  bloody  vengeance  for  personal  insults  or  wrongs, 
his  subsequent  course  sufficiently  proves,  but  the  unfailing 
massacre  which  followed  every  storm  or  surrender,  when 
Romans  were  victors,  renders  it  unnecessary,  if  not  unjust,  to 
ascribe  these  horrors  to  the  peculiar  blood-thirstiness  of 
Sylla,  since  Scipio  the  Continent,  and  Caesar  the  Clement  are 
equally  guilty  with  him  of  ruthless  and  unnecessary  carnage. 

How  many  fell  in  that  dreadful  night  is  not  recorded,  but 
*  Plut,  de  vit.  Syll^,  XIY. 


THE    GARRISON    PUT   TO   THE    SWORD.  387 

Plutarch  asserts  that  as  many  died  by  their  own  hands, 
through  despair  of  receiving  mercy  and  unwillingness  to 
survive  their  country,  as  by  the  swords  of  the  ruthless  co- 
horts. It  appears,  however,  that  after  the  sack  and  first 
havoc,  the  city  was  spared  pillage,  slavery,  or  farther  dis- 
honor, by  the  orders  of  the  conqueror,  who,  if  he  regarded 
nothing  of  living  humanity,  affected  at  least  to  respect  the 
glory  of  the  mighty  dead,  and  the  literary  splendor  of  the 
Athens  of  other  days. 

Aristion  and  his  garrison,  and  all  who  had  held  place 
under  him  since  he  first  seduced  the  city  from  her  Roman 
allegiance,  retreated  to  the  citadel,  but  were  speedily  re- 
duced by  famine,  and  surrendering  at  discretion  were  slaugh- 
tered to  a  man.  The  remainder  of  the  citizens  were  par- 
doned, and  permitted  to  govern  themselves,  as  before,  by 
their  own  local  and  municipal  laws,  and  except  the  Acro- 
polis, which  was  despoiled  at  the  most  of  forty  pounds  weight 
of  gold,  and  six  hundred  of  silver,  the  city  escaped  the  sys- 
tematic Roman  spoliation. 

Sylla  has  left  it  recorded  in  his  own  memoirs,  quoted  by 
Plutarch,  that  the  city  was  captured  on  the  first  of  March, 
corresponding  to  the  new  moon  of  the  Attic  month  Anthcs- 
terion  ;  and,  on  the  very  day  after  its  storm,  he  determined 
to  waste  no  more  time  on  the  blockade  of  the  Piraeus,  but  to 
attempt  it  again  with  the  battering-ram,  and  to  carry  it,  if 
possible,  by  assault,  while  his  men  were  still  flushed  with 
their  late  success,  and  confident  of  victory. 

The  new  retrenchments  were  the  point  which  he  now  as- 
sailed, and  these  were  soon  so  much  damaged  by  the  ram, 
and  by  sappers  who  undermined  the  foundations,  working  be- 
neath the  shelter  of  the  tortoise,  that  large  breaches  were 
made  again  and  again,  and  retrenched  only  by  the  besieged,  to 
be  once  more  forced  and  opened  by  the  besiegers;  so  that,  at 


388  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLa. 

length,  wearied  out,  and  seeing  the  inutility  of  farther  resist- 
ance, the  great  King's  gallant  commander  drew  off  the 
whole  of  the  Oriental  forces,  less  damaged  and  less  dimin- 
ished in  numbers  than  the  conquerors,  and  embarking  them 
in  his  ships,  still  lield  the  harbor  of  Munychium,  and  block- 
aded Sylla  as  closely  as  he  had  before  blockaded  the  city. 

This  siege  is  principally  to-  be  considered  with  a  view  to 
the  length  and  obstinacy  both  of  its  attack  and  defence,  and 
perhaps  on  the  whole  it  reflects  more  credit  on  the  defender 
than  on  the  assailant.  On  both  sides,  every  resource  of 
art,  of  mechanism,  and  of  engineering,  as  they  were  then  under- 
stood, was  brought  into  play  ;  but  it  must  be  remembered, 
that  in  no  other  respect  has  the  modern  gained  so  much  on 
the  ancient  system  of  warfare,  as  in  the  reduction  of  be- 
leaguered places.  The  length  of  time  now  required  to  re- 
duce the  strongest  place,  with  adequate  breaching  batteries, 
and  under  ordinary  circumstances,  has  become  a  mere 
matter  of  calculation  ;  and  it  can  be  foreseen  to  a  day,  by 
skilful  engineers,  how  soon,  if  not  relieved,  the  finest  first- 
rate  fortress  must  surrender,  or  be  carried  by  assault,  with- 
out a  chance  of  failure. 

Before  the  invention  of  gunpowder,  on  the  contrary,  the 
art  of  defence  was  so  far  superior  and  better  understood, 
that  many  places  were  utterly  impregnable,  or  reducible 
only  after  years  of  blockade,  by  means  of  works  so  extensive 
and  of  such  magnitude  as  to  require  more  toil,  time,  labor, 
and  materials  for  the  construction,  than  the  fortress  they 
were  intended  to  reduce. 

In  the  siege  of  Athens,  the  advantages  lay  with  the  occu- 
pants of  the  Piraeus,  who  having  the  command  of  the  sea, 
could  not  be  straitened  either  of  provisions  or  men,  with 
both  of  which  they  were  constantly  supplied  and  reinforced, 
and  had  always  the  means  of  evacuating  the  place  when  it 


sylla's  difficulties.  389 

was  no  longer  tenable,  or  desirable  to  be  retained,  as  they 
ultimately  did,  by  water. 

It  must  be  remembered  also,  that  Sylla  had  little  aid  to 
expect  from  home  at  this  period  ;  which  was  probably  one 
cause  why  his  lieutenant,  Lucullus,  wasted  so  much  time, 
and  so  long  in  vain,  seeking  to  collect  a  squadron  among  the 
islands  and  shores  of  the  Archipelago,  whereby  to  recover 
the  dominion  of  the  seas,  in  place  of  bringing  up  a  Roman 
fleet  from  Ostia,  Brundusium,  or  Ravenna.  Scarce  had 
Sylla  departed  from  Italy,  before  his  late  colleague  Pompeius 
was  murdered  by  his  rebelHous  soldiery ;  before  Cinna, 
breaking  his  plighted  oath,  took  arms  against  the  state,  re- 
called Marius  and  the  proscribed  exiles,  slaughtered  his  own 
colleague  Octavius,  in  his  robes  of  office,  subverted  the 
Senate,  overthew  the  constitution,  filled  Rome  with  con- 
sternation and  havoc,  and  governed  it  as  a  conquered  coun- 
try by  arms  and  martial  law.  During  the  whole  of  his 
Mithridatic  campaigns,  therefore,  he  had  to  rely  solely  on 
his  own  indefatigable  energies  and  resources,  on  such  con- 
tributions as  he  could  raise  from  sterile  and  oft-wasted  coun- 
tries, on  his  tact  in  making  war  support  war,  and  on  such 
spoils  as  he  might  capture  from  the  enemy,  for  the  main- 
tenance of  his  army  and  for  the  materials  of  war. 

He  had  neither  mihtary  chest  nor  magazines,  neither  pro- 
vision ships  nor  transports,  neither  reinforcements  nor  whence 
to  raise  new  levies,  while  his  antagonists  had  uncounted 
wealth,  dominant  fleets,  innumerable  hosts  of  men,  well  pro- 
visioned, splendidly  equipped  and  mounted,  and  amply  pro- 
vided with  transports,  whereby  to  transfer  the  seat  of  war 
whither  they  would,  at  pleasure.  In  everything  but  the 
quality  of  the  men,  and  the  talents  of  the  general,  Mithri- 
dates  had  vastly  the  superiority,  but  in  both  these  he  was  so 
far  inferior  that  how  successful  soever  behind  walls,  neither 


390  LUCIUS   CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

his  officers  nor  his  multitudes  could  avail  him  much  in  the 
open  field,  against  the  legions  led  by  Sylla. 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  he  had  lost  nothing,  if  he  had 
not  actually  gained  thus  far,  by  the  transactions  of  the  first 
campaign.  He  had  lost  no  more  than  a  city,  which  his  gene- 
ral had  skillfully  evacuated  only  when  he  cared  no  longer  to 
retain  it,  for  to  him  the  death  of  Aristion  and  his  garrison, 
or  the  sack  of  Athens  mattered  nothing,  since  by  these  he  lost 
neither  men  nor  money,  in  comparison  with  the  time  w^hich 
he  had  gained,  or  the  use  to  which  his  generals  had  turned  it. 

For  scarcely  had  the  siege  ended,  when  news  was  brought 
to  Archelaus  that  Taxilles  was  advancing  in  great  force,  to- 
gether with  a  second  army  under  Arcathias,  son  of  Mithri- 
dates,  by  the  coast  road  from  Thessaly  into  lower  Greece, 
and  that  his  co-operation  was  earnestly  required  ;  whereupon 
he  at  once  weighed  anchor,  having  on  board  the  garrison  of 
the  Pirseus,  as  well  as  the  reinforcements  brought  to  him  by 
Dromichsetes,  and  landing  somewhere  on  the  coast  of  Boeotia, 
probably  at  Chalcis,  which  was  a  garrison  and  naval  depot 
of  the  king,  marched  through  that  country  northward,  again 
reducing  it  to  submission  ;  and  effected  his  junction  with  the 
grand  army  at  the  famous  pass  of  Thermopylae,  between  the 
precipices  of  Mount  (Eta,  and  the  shores  of  the  gulf  of 
Zituni.  Thence,  like  a  mighty  inundation,  he  overflowed 
the  fertile  plains  of  Boeotia  with  his  multitudes,  Thracians 
and  men  of  Pontus,  Scythians  and  Cappadocians,  Phrygians, 
and  Galatians,  troops  from  all  the  newly  conquered  realms 
of  Mithridates,  amounting  in  all  to  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  men,  while  the  whole  army,  which  Sylla  could 
muster  to  meet  this  mighty  power,  did  not  exceed  a  third 
of  the  number. 

That  general  was  now  himself  reduced  to  considerable 
straits  and  had  but  a  choice  of  difficulties  :  whether  to  iin- 


THE    COUNTRY    OF    THE    COPAIS.  391 

ger  in  Attica,  where  the  rocky  and  uneven  surface  of  the 
country  was  adverse  to  the  nature  and  quality  of  an  Oriental 
army,  the  power  of  which  consisted  mainly  in  its  cavalry 
and  scythe-winged  chariots,  but  where  the  poor  and  sterile 
country,  even  in  peace,  undevastated  and  in  its  highest  culti- 
vation, was  unequal  to  support  its  own  population,  in  hopes 
that  the  enemy  would  come  in  search  of  him — or  to  pursue  him 
into  the  champaign  districts  of  Boeotia,  and  give  him  battle 
on  ground  of  his  own  chosing. 

It  was  clear,  however,  that  if  the  war  was  to  be  brought 
to  an  end  at  all,  it  must  be  through  his  taking  the  initia- 
tive ;  and  for  many  reasons  he  was  most  anxious  to  conclude 
it.  For  though  resolute  to  postpone  the  righting  his  own 
wrongs,  and  avenging  the  crimes  of  the  Marian  faction,  to 
his  present  duty  against  the  foes  of  Rome,  he  was  yet  afire 
to  wreak  vengeance  on  his  individual  enemies,  and  to  quench 
in  blood  the  flames  of  democratic  anarchy.  He  was,  more- 
over, extremely  pressed  for  means  of  subsistence,  as  he  was 
still  closely  blockaded  by  the  king's  squadrons,  and  had  ex- 
hausted every  resource  of  the  unhappy  country.  Perforce, 
therefore,  he  broke  up  from  the  city,  and  entered  Bceotia  by 
leisurely  advances,  retaking  and  garrisoning  the  places  which 
had  revolted,  and  cautiously  pursuing  Archelaus,  who  fell  back 
before  him  into  the  upper  country  toward  the  Copaic  lake, 
where  the  plains  are  intersected  by  many  streams  and  hol- 
low beds  of  torrents,  and  broken  by  isolated  knolls,  and  the 
projecting  spurs  of  the  mountain  ridges. 

On  the  northern  banks  of  the  Cephissus,  or  Mauroneri, 
from  its  junction  with  the  river  Platania,  to  its  embouchure 
in  the  marshes  and  lake  of  the  same  name  under  the  battle- 
ments of  the  strong  fortress  of  Orchomenos,  are  two  consider- 
able mountain  ridges,  Edylium  and  Acontium,  under  the  lower 
spur  of  the  latter  of  which  stands  the  aforenamed  citadel. 


392  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

Between  these  two  hills  a  mountain  torrent,  the  Molus, 
rushes  down  from  the  north-east,  having  a  Tillage  named 
Assia,  the  modern  Karamusu,  under  the  steep  slopes  of 
Edylium,  situated  in  the  low  ground  near  its  mouth.  On 
the  extreme  northern  point  of  Mount  Edylium,  a  steep,  craggy, 
precipitous  hill,  above  a  deep  mountain  stream,  the  Assus,  now 
known  as  the  Kineta,  stood  the  ruined  citadel  of  Parapotamii. 
To  the  south  of  the  river  he  the  open  plains  of  Chaeronea,  scene 
of  "that  dishonest  victory  fatal  to  liberty,"  which  *'  killed  by 
report  the  old  man  eloquent,"  bounded  to  the  southward  by  the 
heights  of  Thurium,  a  rugged,  pine-shaped  mountain,  so  named 
fromThuro,  the  mother  of  Chseron,  looking  down  to  the  west- 
ward on  the  deep  rocky  ravine  of  the  torrent  Morius,  which 
pours  its  impetuous  waters  into  the  Cephissus  from  the  south- 
ward, at  a  point  nearly  opposite  to  Assia,  about  two  miles  east 
of  the  embouchure  of  the  Molus.  The  distance  across  the 
plain,  nearly  in  the  centre  of  which  stands  Chaeronea,  from 
Assia  beyond  the  river  to  Thurium,  north  and  south,  is 
about  four  miles,  and  that  from  the  Morius,  east  and  west, 
to  the  lower  waters  of  the  Cephissus,  which  here  makes  a 
wide  semicircular  sweep,  is  not  much  less  than  five,  a  beauti- 
ful level  expanse  of  meadow  and  corn-land  among  the  most 
fertile  tracts  of  Greece.  At  a  place  called  Patronis,  the 
site  of  which  has  not  been  identified,  even  by  that  enterpris- 
ing traveller  and  topographer,  Martin  Leake,  from  whose 
excellent  work  on  Northern  Greece,  the  above  details  are 
taken,  but  which  probably  lay  north-west  of  Chaeronea,  be- 
tween the  Morius  and  the  great  valley  of  the  Platania,  not  far 
from  the  opening  into  that  strath  of  a  diificult  gorge,  above 
which  stands  the  modern  village  of  Dhavha,  bringing  down 
a  wild  headlong  torrent  from  the  snowy  tops  of  Mount  Ly- 
corea,  and  the  loftier  cliffs  of  cloud-capped  Parnassus,  Sylla 
came  to  a  stand.     Beyond  the  iron  barrier  of  these  huge  and 


MARCH    OF    HORTENSIUS.  393 

toppling  mountains,  on  either  side  the  upper  Cephissus,  here 
a  pastoral  river  flowing  southeastward,  stretch  far  and  wide 
the  great  Elatic  plains,  at  least  twelve  miles  along  the  river 
and  more  than  two-thirds  that  width  from  the  roots  of  the 
Parnassian  ridge  to  the  great  northern  chain  of  Cnemis. 

In  these  Elatic  plains,  admirably  suited  to  the  manoeuvres 
of  his  magnificent  squadrons  of  Cappadocian  cuirassiers,  and 
to  the  career  of  his  scythed  chariots,  which  required  ample 
space  wherein  to  acquire  the  velocity  needful  to  their  suc- 
cess, lay  Archelaus  with  his  mighty  host,  confident  in  his 
vast  superiority  of  numbers,  and  living  luxuriously  on  the 
wealth  of  that  fat  district,  the  richest  grain  and  grass  coun- 
try of  all  Hellas. 

Through  the  diflScult  hill  country  to  the  northwest,  Hor- 
tensius,  the  only  officer  by  whom  Sylla  could  be  supported, 
was  moving  toilsomely  up  with  his  heavy  reinforcements 
through  the  defiles  of  Parnassus,  and  the  gorge  of  the  river 
Pindus,  which  is  in  fact  one  of  the  upper  affluents  of  the 
Cephissus  ;  and  to  effect  a  junction  with  him  was  the  first 
object  of  the  Roman  commander.  At  Tithorea,  the  modern 
village  of  Yelitza,*  on  the  northeastern  verge  of  the  Elatic 
plains,  and  .under  the  base  of  the  great  ridges  of  Mount 
Lycorea,  Hortensius  came  in  contact  with  the  forces  of 
Archelaus.  But,  although  fearfully  out-numbered,  he  chose 
so  good  a  position,  and  defended  himself  with  such  obstinate 
resolution  against  their  attacks,  which  endured  through  the 
whole  day,  that  he  succeeded  in  holding  them  at  arm's  length 
until  night ;  when  he  drew  off  silently,  avoiding  the  open 
country,  and,  through  the  crags  and  thickets  of  Lycorea, 
made  his  way  to  the  northern  valley  of  Dhavlia,  and  thence 
by  the  stern  ravine  of  which  I  have  spoken,  to  the  Platania 
and  Patronis,  where  Sylla  awaited  him. 

*  Plut.  vit.  Sylltfi,  XVII.— Leake's  Travels  in  Northern  Greece. 


394  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

Thus  reinforced,  the  Patrician  general  moved  cautiously 
forward  through  the  pass  between  the  solitary  peak  of  Ane- 
morea  and  the  valley  of  the  Cephissus,  running  north  and 
south  between  the  cliffs  of  that  rocky  fastness  and  the  op- 
posite heights  of  Edyllium  ;  entered  the  Elatic  plains  and 
made  himself  master  of  a  beautiful  isolated  hill,  covered 
with  smooth  grassy  downs  and  shady  groves,  having  copious 
springs  of  pure  water  at  its  base,  known  as  Mount  Philobceo- 
tus,  identified  by  Leake  with  a  singular  insulated  conical 
height,  between  the  river  and  the  modern  village  of  Bissikeni, 
on  which  he  took  post ;  and  extended  his  lines  across  the  hol- 
low or  lap  of  the  plain  to  another  abrupt  elevation  above  the 
modern  village  and  the  bridge  of  Kervasara  ;  so  that  his  left, 
as  he  faced  southward,  rested  on  the  Cephissus,  and  his  right 
on  the  inexpugnable  peak  of  Philoboeotus.  Against  this 
formidable  position  the  Orientals  drew  out  their  superb 
array,  shaking  the  plain  with  the  thundrous  gallop  of  their 
barbed  squadrons,  and  the  rolling  din  of  their  iron  chariots, 
out-dazzling  the  sun  with  the  noonday  glare  of  their  pano- 
plies glittering  with  steel  and  red  with  gold,  and  filHng  the 
air  with  their  shouts  and  conclamations. 

And  it  was  far  from  being  empty  or  useless,  that  magnifi- 
cence and  pomp  of  martial  preparation  ;  for  the  lightning 
flashes  of  their  arms  and  weapons,  splendid  with  gold  and 
silver,  and  the  many-colored  dyes  of  the  Scythian  and 
Median  tunics  interspersed  among  the  glare  of  brazen 
shields  and  bucklers,  as  the  multitude  rocked  and  rolled  like 
a  heaving  sea,  presented  a  show  so  terrible,  that  the  Romans 
were  appalled  and  cowered  within  their  lines  ;  nor  could 
Sylla,  with  all  the  powers  of  his  eloquence,  all  the  prestige 
of  his  great  and  invincible  renown,  so  encourage  them  as 
to  justify  him  to  himself  in  giving  battle. 

Finding  it  impossible  to  force  him  to  fight  against  his  will, 


TIMIDITY    OF   THE   TROOPS.  395 

Archelaus,  it  would  seem,  passed  the  Cephissus  near  Kerva- 
sara,  under  the  face  of  the  Roman  left,  and  leaving  a  gar- 
rison on  the  craggy  knoll  of  Parapotamii,  where  were  the 
ruins  of  an  ancient  fortress,  moved  down  on  both  sides  of 
Mount  Edyllium  by  the  main  river  and  the  torrent  Molus, 
which  divides  it  from  the  heights  of  Acontium,  and  pitched 
his  head-quarters  at  Assia,  whence  he  extended  his  line 
across  the  open  country  toward  Chseronea. 

Meanwhile,  with  large  detachments  of  his  skirmishers  and 
horse,  he  cruelly  devastated  the  country,  burned  Panopaea  to 
the  ground,  sacked  the  thriving  town  of  Lebadea,  and  plun- 
dered the  rich  oracular  shrine  of  Jupiter  Trophonius ;  until, 
the  smoke,  rising  in  columns  everywhere  throughout  the  lovely 
plains,  and  the  scenes  of  tumult,  misery,  and  slaughter  which 
he  could  overlook  and  behold  from  his  rock  fastness  of 
Philoboeotus,  exasperated  Sylla  to  the  point,  that  he  was 
now  as  anxious  to  engage,  as  he  had  been  before  desirous  to 
avoid  battle.  Still  in  the  present  temper  of  his  troops  he 
felt  unequal  to  the  contest ;  and,  therefore,  took  a  singular 
method  enough  to  inspire  them  with  military  ardor  ;  for, 
after  reproaching  them  with  their  want  of  courage,  and 
affecting  to  hold  himself  insecure,  even  within  his  entrench- 
ments among  soldiers  of  such  questionable  valor,  he  em- 
ployed them  for  several  days  in  the  severest  labors  of  forti- 
fication and  military  engineering,  compelling  them  to  cut 
vast  trenches  across  the  plain,  into  which  he  diverted  the 
waters  of  the  Cephissus,*  as  if  to  protect  his  lines,  but  really 
in  order  to  enrage  the  men  by  such  toilsome  and  degrading 
occupation.  And  therein  he  succeeded  ;  for  on  the  fourth 
morning,  when  Sylla  made  his  appearance  from  the  Praeto- 
rium,  he  was  saluted  by  loud  acclamations  and  entreaties  to 
be  led  to  instant  action  ;  but  he  replied  only  that  he  knew 
*  Plut  vit.    Syllffi,  XYL 


396  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

well  their  object,  which  was  simply  this,  not  that  they  did 
desire  to  fight,  but  that  they  desired  not  to  work  ;  and  that 
in  such  men  he  had  neither  confidence  nor  hope.  Then,  on 
their  clamoring  more  fiercely,  that  he  should  let  them  go,  and 
try  them,  he  answered  that,  if  they  indeed  meant  fighting, 
they  might  take  up  arms  on  the  spot  and  storm  that  post — 
pointing  as  he  spoke  to  the  abrupt  and  precipitous  hill  of 
Parapotamii,  divided  from  the  flanks  of  Edyllium  by  a  deep 
broken  torrent-bed,  or  charadra,  and  rising  from  the  farther 
bank  of  the  Cephissus,  in  scarped  and  almost  inaccessible 
cliffs  and  natural  ramparts,  on  the  summits  of  which  blazed 
broadly  in  the  morning  sun  the  brazen  bucklers  of  the 
royal  Chalcaspidse. 

On  the  instant  the  legions  ran  to  arms,  with  a  mighty 
shout,  forded  the  river  at  a  rush,  and  scaled  the  bold  and 
slippery  limestone  ledges  with  such  impetuous  and  headlong 
spirit,  that  their  charge  carried  all  before  it ;  and  that,  al- 
though stones  and  trunks  of  trees  were  hurled  upon  their 
lieads  as  they  advanced  among  a  hailstorm  of  arrows,  jav- 
elins, and  slingshot,  they  forced  their  way  up  passes  and  over 
crags,  which  in  cooler  moments  they  could  not  have  carried 
even  unopposed,  in  spite  of  every  disadvantage,  until  they 
reached  the  summit.  Then,  charged  to  the  teeth  by  the 
long  pikes  and  serried  shields  of  the  Chalcaspidse,  they  went 
in  with  the  long  buckler  and  short  sword  with  such  a  will, 
that  they  deforced  the  massy  phalanx  and  hurled  it  down 
the  rocky  gorge  toward  Edyllium,  pursuing  it  with  fearful 
slaughter  nearly  to  its  entrenchments  at  Assia. 

Driven  down  from  this  fastness,  which  misadventure  in  no- 
wise discouraged  him  or  broke  his  confidence  in  his  numbers, 
for  the  Romans  were  so  few  in  comparison  with  his  armed 
hordes,  that  he  conceived  them  wholly  incompetent  to  meet 
him  in  the  open  field,  Archelaus  made  a  dash  at  Chseronea, 


RIV^VLnY    ox    THE    MARCH.  30 T 

which  was  a  town  of  considerable  wealth  and  magnitude, 
trusting  either  to  carry  it  by  a  coup  de  main,  before  Sylla 
could  succor  it,  or,  if  not,  force  the  Romans  to  action  at  dis- 
advantage. 

News  was  brought  to  Sylla  of  this  movement  by  some  ter- 
rified natives  of  the  menaced  city,  who  were  serving  with  his 
array,  imploring  instant  succor,  just  as  his  men,  after  posting 
a  sufficient  force  to  keep  the  heights,  which  they  had  won  so 
gallantly,  were  returning,  flushed  with  victory  and  full  of 
haughty  exultation,  to  their  lines.  Whereupon,  he  instantly 
despatched  Gabinius,  or,  as  some  say  Ericius,  one  of  the 
tribunes  of  the  soldiery,  with  a  single  legion  to  relieve 
the  place  ;  and  the  men,  fired  with  haughty  exultation, 
made  such  speed  to  the  rescue,  that  they  actually  out- 
stripped the  ChDeronean  runners,  who  would  have  borne 
tidings  of  the  coming  succor,  in  anticipation  of  the  troops, 
but  could  not. 

Then  was  seen  the  same  spirited  and  thrilling  spectacle, 
which  was  exhibited  by  the  French  and  English  regiments  in 
the  beautiful  manoeuvering  which  preceded  the  battle  of  Sal- 
amanca ;  when  "  those  *two  noble  armies  marched  on  parallel 
heights,  within  musket  shot  of  each  other,  in  the  most  per- 
fect array,"  without  drawing  a  sword  or  pulling  a  trigger  ; 
each  striving  by  dint  of  the  most  strenuous  exertion,  by 
sheer  speed  of  movement  and  strength  of  bodily  endurance, 
to  outstrip  the  other,  and  gain  the  spot,  for  the  possession 
of  which  they  were  contending,  by  celerity  and  activity  of 
operation. 

On  either  side  of  the  broad  and  beautiful  Cephissus,  down 

the  wild  valley,  thick  with  the  glorious  evergreens  of  Greece, 

the  bay,  the  daphne,  the  cypress  and  the  holm  oak,  now  seen, 

now  lost  to  sight  behind  the  great  gray  crags,  or  in  the 

*  Alison,  Hist.  Europe,  III,  489. 


398  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

shadowy  thickets,  the  rival  troops  rushed  on,  their  gleaming 
panoplies  and  brazen  bucklers  now  flashing  out  in  the  broad 
light,  now  quenched  in  the  cool  green  shadow,  vieing,  like 
trained  athletge  in  the  sportive  foot  race,  the  old  hills  ringing 
to  their  emulative  shouts  and  sending  back  the  clash  and 
clangor  of  their  armor  in  thousands  of  redoubled  echoes. 
But  when  they  gained  the  plain  toward  Chaeronea,  the  Ro- 
mans passing  the  Platania  near  its  mouth  and  the  rocky 
gorge  of  the  Morius,  and  the  orientals,  the  Cephissus  in 
front  of  Assia,  the  superiority  of  the  Roman  soldier,  the 
trained  athlete  of  Western  race,  to  the  more  slightly  framed 
natives  of  the  East,  was  rendered  as  manifest  in  his  marching 
qualities  as  in  his  fighting  capacities.  Gabinius  with  his 
legion  entered  the  town  in  triumph  ;  and  soon  the  long  array 
of  bucklers  and  massive  pila  lining  the  walls  showed  that 
the  cohorts  were  within,  and  the  place  consequently  secure 
against  any  power  which  should  attempt  it. 

On  the  following  day,  well  satisfied  with  his  success  hither- 
to, Sylla  determined  to  deliver  a  general  action,  having  in 
fact,  by  his  skillful  manoeuvres  on  the  preceding  days, 
cramped  the  enemy  up  into  such  a  line  of  country  as  almost 
ensured  a  victory  ;  since  the  nature  of  the  ground  neither 
permitted  of  his  forming,  as  it  was  customary  with  the 
ancients  to  do,  a  single  connected  line  of  battle,  nor  gave 
him  any  opportunity  of  using  to  advantage  his  vast  superi- 
ority in  horse  and  chariots. 

And  here  it  may  be  well  to  notice  some  slight  difficulties 
and  discrepancies  between  the  various  accounts  of  this  inter- 
esting action,  the  relation  of  which  Plutarch  appears  to  have 
derived  principally  from  Sylla's  own  private  memoirs,  which 
were  extant  in  his  day,  as  well  as  a  remarkable  variance  be- 
tween the  narratives  and  the  real  nature  of  the  topography, 
as  ascertained  by  the  surveys  of  Col.  Leake. 


FORCE  or  sylla's  legions.  399 

la  the  *first  place,  all  the  accounts  of  these  operations 
state  Sylla's  force  to  have  consisted  of  five  full  Roman 
legions,  beside  some  unattached  cohorts,  in  addition  to  Ma- 
cedonian and  Hellenic  auxiharies,  and  his  proper  comple- 
ment of  horse  ;  but  Plutarch  asserts  that  the  Roman  army 
numbered  only  fifteen  thousand  foot  and  fifteen  hundred 
cavalry,  which  is  totally  inconsistent  with  the  numerical 
force  of  the  legion.  For  the  latter  legion,  by  its  form  and 
constitution,  never  consisted  of  less  than  four  thousand  two 
hundred  foot,  with  three  hundred  horse,  while  generally  it 
greatly  exceeded  that  number.  By  a  decree  of  the  senate, 
preceding  the  battle  of  Cannae,  the  legions  were  raised  to 
five  thousand  infantry*  soldiers,  the  cavalry  being  un- 
changed. The  allied  legions  had  the  same  strength  of  foot, 
but  their  horse  was  doubled.  When  the  elder  Scipio  Afri- 
canus  carried  the  second  Punic  War  into  Africa, f  his  legions 
were  augmented  to  six  thousand  two  hundred  bucklers  and 
pila,  with  the  regular  complement  of  cavalry  ;  and  lastly, 
when  Lucius  ^milius  Paulus  took  command  of  the  Mace- 
donian War  against  Perseus,  B.  C.  168,  the  legions  which 
accompanied  him  J  were  rated  at  six  thousand  shields  of  in- 
fantry, the  horse  being  still  kept  to  the  original  rate.  Nor 
so  far  as  it  appears  was  this  enumeration  ever  altered  ;  for 
the  Caesarian  or  imperial  legion  consisted,  to  the  end,  of  ten 
cohorts,  each  six  hundred  strong,  the  old  division  by  mani- 
ples being  abolished  ;  and  the  same,  it  can  hardly  be 
doubted,  were  the  legions  of  Sylla,  since  we  find  that  in  his 
wars  the  tactic  of  the  cohort  was  already  in  vogue. 

The  Roman  force,  therefore,  engaged  at  Chaeronea,  should 
have  amounted  to  at  least  thirty-three  thousand  foot, 
being  five  legions  of  six  thousand  each,  and  five  cohorts  of 

♦  Polybius.  III.  Bell.  Pun.  II.  107. 

t  Appian.  Bell.  Mith.  XXX.  t  Livy  XLIY.  21. 


400  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

six  Imndred.  The  horse  supposing  them  to  be  Koman, 
would  be  correctly  stated  at  fifteen  hundred  ;  but  if  they 
were  allies — and  after  this  date  the  Romans  kept  no  native 
horse  on  foot — the  number  must  be  doubled,  which  would 
raise  the  whole  army  to  thirty-six  thousand  men,  more  or 
less,  exclusive  of  the  auxiliary  Greeks,  who  may  have 
swelled  it  to  forty  thousand,  or  upward,  of  all  arms. 

What  singularly  corroborates  this  calculation  is,  the  fact, 
that  while  Plutarch  states  the  troops  of  Archelaus  aud  Tax- 
illes  at  a  hundred  thousand  foot  and  ten  thousand  horse, 
Appian  makes  them,  in  round  numbers,  a  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  spears  and  sabres ;  and  declares,  in  the  next 
line,  that  Sylla's  army  had  scarce  a  third  of  their  strength, 
which  corresponds  precisely  with  the  above  calculation,  and 
with  the  number  of  legions  specified  both  by  himself*  and 
Plutarch. f  The  second  statement  of  the  latter  writer,  either 
arises  from  his  not  unfrequent  carelessness,  or  from  the  fact 
that  he  followed  Sylla's  memoirs,  who  might  have  desired  to 
glorify  himself  by  underrating  his  own  command,  as  com- 
pared with  that  of  the  enemy,  although  the  real  disparity 
is  quite  sufficiently  to  his  credit. 

The  other  discrepancy  is  more  curious,  for  while  Plutarch^s 
description  of  the  field  of  battle  is  so  minute,  so  lucid,  and 
so  correct  in  its  topography,  as  ascertained  by  Col.  Leake 
in  his  survey,  as  to  all  other  particulars,  that  the  action 
might  be  fought  over  again  without  variation  ;  he  states 
that  the  torrent  Assus,  which  is  the  modern  Kineta,  divides 
the  hill  of  Parapotamii,  crowned  by  an  ancient  ruin,  from  the 
northern  point  of  Mount  Edyllium,  whereas,  in  fact,  that 
torrent  enters  the  Cephissus  to  the  northward  of  the  fortified 
knoll,  which  is  separated  from  Edyllium  only  by  a  rocky 

*  Appian  Bell.  Mith.  XXX. 
t  Plut.  vit.  Syllse,  IX. 


MANOEUVRING.  401 

hollow,  without  any  stream  or  watercourse.  These  minor 
points,  however,  which  cannot  now  be  clearly  explained,  being 
omitted,  it  is  evident  that  the  army  of  Archelaus,  whose 
right  rested  on  the  fortified  village  of  Assia,  where  he  had 
drawn  a  line  of  strong  palisades  across  the  whole  space  be- 
tween Mounts  EdylUum  and  Acontium,  was  a  cheval  on  the 
river  Cephissus,  extending  quite  across  the  open  plains,  east- 
ward of  Chseronea  to  Mount  Thurium,  on  which  he  had 
stationed  his  left,  on  what  probably  appeared  to  him  an  im- 
pregnable point  cTappui.  His  position  formed,  therefore,  a 
great  hollow  semicircle,  the  chord  running  nearly  north  and 
south  from  Assia  to  Thurium,  for  a  distance  of  about  four 
miles,  the  city  of  Chaeronea,  held  by  Gabinius,  with  one  Ro- 
man legion,  being  the  centre  of  the  whole  circle,  had  it  been 
completed. 

On  the  morning,  when  he  determined  to  fight,  Sylla  moved 
down  the  gorges  of  the  Kineta  and  Upper  Cephissus,  tr.rn- 
ing  Edyllium  by  his  left,  until  he  came  directly  in  front  of 
Assia,  where  he  crossed  the  latter  river  exactly  at  the  point 
where  it  turns  almost  at  a  right  angle,  eastward;  and  placed 
Mursena,  with  a  legion  and  two  cohorts  fronting  the  lines  of 
Archelaus,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Morius,  in  command  of  his 
own  left.  Thence  he  advanced  himself  to  Chaeronea,  with 
the  strength  of  his  centre,  and  having  reinforced  Gabinius  at 
that  point,  proceeded  to  reconnoitre  the  enemy's  left,  on  the 
strong  height  of  Thurium,  which  domineered  his  right  wing, 
from  what  appeared  at  first  to  be  an  impregnable  point. 

By  this  manoeuvring  he  had  gained  everything  ;  he  had 
forced  the  enemy  iuto  the  necessity  of  fighting  in  a  great 
eccentric  circle,  among  hills  and  rivers,  which  prevented  his 
using  his  fine  cavalry,  and  where  he  had  no  means  of  com- 
munication, or  roads  in  his  rear,  by  which  to  support  his  own 
wings  or  to  retreat  if  worsted,  against  a  concentrated  army 


402  LUCIUS  CORNELIUS  SYLLA. 

delivering  battle  on  a  convex  arc,  and  therefore  entirely 
manageable  and  in  hand  for  any  emergency. 

At  the  moment  when  he  was  in  doubt  how  he  should  open 
his  attack,  he  was  informed  by  some  men  of  Chaeronea,  that 
there  existed  a  bye-path  among  the  rocks,  unknown  to  the 
barbarians,  whereby  the  strongest  point  of  Mount  Thurium 
— on  which  Archelaus^  left  stood,  in  imposing  masses  of 
horse,  foot,  and  chariots,  crowding  the  slopes,  and  ready  to 
sweep  the  plains  below — might  be  taken  in  reverse.  This 
would  be  to  master  the  key  of  the  whole  position,  by  turning 
the  enemy's  left,  and  having  beaten  him  there  in  detail, 
forcing  him  back,  with  his  reserves,  as  they  might  succes- 
sively come  up,  upon  the  great  lake  and  mountains,  which 
would  then  be  in  his  rear,  and  whence  he  could  have  no  re- 
treat. 

Previously  to  making  this  movement,  partly,  I  imagine,  to 
tempt  Archelaus  to  extend  his  right  injudiciously,  partly  to 
prevent  him  from  turning  his  own  left,  Sylla  retired  that 
portion  of  his  line,  in  some  degree,  posting  Galba  and  Hor- 
tensius  on  some  heights,  echelonned  to  the  left  of  Muroena's 
rear,  so  as  to  overflank,  in  case  of  need,  any  flank  move- 
ments. 

These  arrangements  made,  and  the  victory  being  actually 
won  already  by  the  dispositions  of  the  leader,  a  strong- 
storming  party,  led  by  a  forlorn  hope  of  Chaeroneans,  under 
Ericius,  properly  supported  by  powerful  reserves  of  legion- 
aries, made  their  way  silently  through  the  woods  by  Mount 
Petrarch  us  and  the  grove  and  temple  of  the  Muses  ;  and 
gaining  the  rear  of  the  enemy's  left,  turned  it  completely, 
stole  up  the  reverse  of  the  crags  unobserved,  and  were  in 
possession  of  the  summit  before  their  presence  was  sus- 
pected. Then,  with  a  shout,  which  was  repeated  far  and 
wide  by  the  reechoing  hills,  with  the  stern  short  blast  of  the 


BATTLE   OF   CH^RONEA.  403 

Roman  trumpets,  and  with  tlie  clang  of  blade  and  buckler, 
they  charged  home.  On  that  height,  preeminent,  and  illu- 
minated by  the  full  blaze  of  the  rising  sun,  they  were  as  a 
conscious  mark  for  all  eyes  of  both  armies  ;  and,  as  if  they 
felt  that  it  was  so,  they  fought  with  such  prowess  that  the 
enemy  did  not  stand  their  onset,  no,  not  a  moment.  De- 
forced from  the  heights,  driven  bodily  before  the  compact 
rush  of  the  legionaries,  the  length  of  their  paces  involun- 
tarily increasing  as  they  plunged  down  the  precipitous  decli- 
vities, they  overstrode  themselves,  lost  their  footing,  and 
fell,  to  be  spitted  on  the  pikes  of  their  companions  in  the 
plain,  or  broke  their  necks  among  the  rocks,*  while  the 
enemy  ravaged  them  with  their  missiles  from  above,  and 
smote  unsparingly  their  defenceless  rear. 

Three  thousand  fell  on  Mount  Thurium  alone  ;  and  those 
who  escaped,  pressing  on  the  left  of  their  centre,  bore  it  into 
the  position  of  Muraena,  who  had  wheeled  somewhat  to  his 
right,  and  were  incontinently  cut  to  pieces.  Sylla,  mean- 
time, advanced  his  centre  with  such  vigor,  that  he  fell  upon 
them,  while  yet  embarrassed  by  the  pressure  of  their  dis- 
comfitted  left,  and  was  hand  to  hand  with  their  chariots,  on 
which  they  had  placed  so  much  reliance,  before  the  horses 
could  be  got  to  their  speed  or  the  impetus  acquired,  by 
which  alone  these  terrible  engines  could  be  made  available. 
While  the  horses  were  rearing  and  plunging  in  confusion,  in 
a  narrow  space,  under  the  lash  and  shouts  of  their  drivers, 
they  were  mastered  with  such  ease  by  the  hardy  cohorts, 
who  caught  them  by  the  heads  and  cut  down  the  charioteers 
without  quarter,  that  the  thing  became  ridiculous,  and  the 
Romans  encored  the  performance  with  shouts  of  laughter 
and  clapping  of  their  hands,  as  if  at  the  spectacles  of  the 
hippodrome. 

*  Plutarch  vit.  Syllse,  XYII. 


404  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

Thereafter,  the  main  centre  of  the  infantry  encountered 
the  best  of  the  enemy's  army,  being  a  body  of  liberated 
Greek  slaves  whom  the  Orientals  had  emancipated,  and  who 
fought  in  the  compact  order  of  the  Macedonian  phalanx, 
eight  files  deep,  with  linked  shields  and  the  terrible  twenty- 
four  feet  sarissoe  levelled.  Against  these  the  legions  charged, 
sword  in  hand,  without  hurling  their  pila,  as  anxious  to 
come  at  once  to  close  quarters,  and  break  up  their  solid 
array.  But  the  phalanx  was  on  favorable  ground,  without 
inequalities  of  surface,  which  might  throw  it  into  confusion; 
and  no  impetuosity  or  persistance,  either  of  desultory  fight- 
ing or  steady  attack,  could  break  or  disorder  their  serried 
advance.  The  loose  lines  and  short  weapons  of  the  cohorts 
availed  nothing  against  them,  and  it  was  to  no  purpose  that 
the  Komans  hewed  at  the  tough  ashen  pike-staves  with 
their  Spanish  blades,  or  strove  to  master  the  round  shields 
with  their  hands  ;  they  made  no  impression  ;  and  had  the 
celebrated  Greek  tactic  been  as  flexible  and  handy  as  it  was 
formidable  in  direct  forward  onsets,  the  action  might  have 
been  still  doubtful.  But  though  this  great  solid  mass  still 
held  its  own  unbroken  in  the  centre,  it  was  in  no  condition  to 
improve  its  advantage,  but  remained  stationary,  majestic  in- 
deed, and  formidable  to  the  eye,  like  a  stranded  ship  among 
the  breakers,  but  capable  of  passive  resistance  only,  until  the 
heavy  foot  were  called  off,  and  reformed  by  battle-cry  and 
trumpet-blast,  while  front  and  flank  the  skirmishers  were  let 
loose  on  the  unwieldly  mass,  and  plied  it  with  sling-shot, 
arrows,  and  javelins,  until  no  longer  able  to  endure  the  in- 
cessant volleys,  which  mowed  them  down  from  the  head  to 
the  rear  of  their  column,  and  to  which  they  could  make  no 
return,  they  broke,  and  the  sword  finished  it. 

In  the  meantime  Archelaus  had  fallen  into  the  trap  which 
Sylla  had  laid  for  him,  but  had  worked  so  vigorously  with 


ONSET    OF    TAXILLES.  405 

his  powerful  bodies  of  cuirassiers-,  that  he  had  nearly  coun- 
ter-balanced the  misadventure  of  his  left  and  centre,  by  the 
success  of  his  right,  where  he  fought  in  person. 

Extending  himself  in  this  direction  entirely  round  the  left 
of  Muraena,  who  had  obliqued,  as  I  have  stated,  to  the  right 
on  the  oriental  centre,  he  was  met  midway  by  the  select  co- 
horts of  Hortensius  and  Galba,who,bringing  up  their  left  shoul- 
ders at  the  pasde  charge,  meant  in  turn  to  outflank  him.  But 
his  two  thousand  picked  cuirassiers  were  too  quick  for  them, 
and  working,  as  if  on  parade,  actually  broke  their  order, 
turning  them  and  driving  them  in  upon  the  hilly  ground  and 
the  banks  of  the  Morius,  toward  the  spot  where  Sylla  stood 
with  his  extreme  right,  which  had  not  been  as  yet  engaged, 
observing  the  chances  of  the  fight. 

The  battle,  it  must  be  observed,  had  hitherto  been  fought 
by  the  centre  and  left  of  the  Romans  only,  the  enemy's  left 
having  been  annihilated  by  the  party  detached  to  the  rear, 
without  any  movement  of  the  Roman  right  opposed  to  them ; 
and  this  was  now  brought  by  the  oblique  charge  of  Muraena 
toward  it,  nearly  into  the  rear  of  its  own  centre,  and  conse- 
quently was  only  a  short  distance  from  the  inner  arc  of  its 
left,  which  it  could  easily  support  by  changing  its  front,  and 
marching  .directly  forward. 

This  movement  Sylla  was  in  the  act  of  making,  when 
Archelaus,  seeing,  by  the  clouds  of  dust  and  the  consular 
eagles  glittering  above  it,  what  succor  was  at  hand,  again 
wheeled  off  with  a  still  wider  sweep,  which,  could  he  have 
accomplished  it  in  time,  would  have  carried  him  entirely 
round  the  Roman  lines,  almost  to  the  place  where  his  own 
left  wing  had  been  beaten  in  the  morning.  At  the  same  in- 
stant, Taxilles,  with  the  Chalcaspida3,  who  alone  of  the  ori- 
entals was  disengaged,  made  a  tremendous  onset  from  the 
right  of  his  centre  upon  Muraena,  who  was  yet  struggling 


406  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLa 

with  the  slave  phalanx.  The  half-won  battle  might  easily 
have  been  lost,  but  Sylla  was  equal  to  the  emergency.  The 
shouts  arising  on  both  sides,  redoubled  by  the  mountain 
echoes,  the  great  soldier  halted  for  an  instant,  doubtful 
where  the  storm  was  about  to  burst  ;  but  perceiving  quickly 
that  Hortensius  was  relieved  from  the  pressure,  and 
marking  the  semicircular  sweep  of  Archelaus,  he  hurried  the 
former  with  four  cohorts  to  the  aid  of  Muraena,  and 
calling  the  fifth  to  follow  him,  wheeled,  as  if  on  a  pivot, 
and  was  on  his  ground  on  his  right  in  time  to  hurl  the  enemy 
back  bodily  upon  Mount  Acontius  and  the  lake.  Muraena 
seasonably  reinforced,  had  now  carried  all  before  him,  and, 
as  Sylla  wheeled  up  faster  and  faster  from  his  right,  con- 
verting his  whole  lines  from  a  convex  into  a  concave  arc, 
and  driving  the  shattered  masses  of  the  beaten  multitude 
inward,  like  fish  enclosed  in  the  circular  sweep  of  a  seine, 
they  were  cut  to  pieces  in  the  plain,  without  difficulty  or 
mercy,  forced  over  the  river  into  their  original  entrench- 
ments at  Assia,  and,  these  forced,  pent  up  into  the  rugged 
hills,  whence  there  was  no  escape. 

Of  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men,  who  had 
swelled  the  shout  for  Mithridates,  and  fought  so  manfully 
and  with  so  earnest  a  resolve  to  win  through  that  disastrous 
day,  ten  thousand  only,  with  their  chief,  escaped  to  tell  the 
news  at  Chalcis  to  their  comrades  of  the  fleet.  The  remain- 
der fed  the  vultures  of  Parnassus,  or  fattened  the  corn  lands 
of  Chseronea,  which  seemed  as  fatally  predestined  in  those 
ages  to  be  the  scene  of  gigantic  combats,  as,  in  the  latter 
days,  the  Flemish  Netherlands. 

Singular  to  record,  in  this  tremendous  and  decisive  battle, 
the  Roman  loss  was  almost  nothing  ;  when  the  evening  rolls 
were  called,  after  the  action,  fourteen  men  only  of  the  legions 
answered  not  to  their  names,  and  of  these  two  were  present 


COMPLETE    VICTORY.  40*1 

under  arms  at  the  morning  roster.  Twelve  men  were  the 
cost  to  the  Romans  of  this  wonderful  victory,  which  cleared 
Greece  of  the  enemy,  as  if  by  a  thunderstroke,  and  left 
them,  for  a  time,  no  one  with  whom  to  fight,  "  unless,"  to 
borrow  Lord  Astley's  words  to  the  parliamentarians,  "  they 
chose  to  fall  out  among  themselves."  But  the  time  for  that, 
although  not  far  aloof,  was  not  yet. 

It  would,  however,  be  most  unjust  to  measure  Sylla^s  merit 
in  this  action  by  the  amount  of  his  losses.  In  all  the  con- 
flicts of  the  olden  day,  when  fighting  was  hand  to  hand,  and 
the  sword  and  pike  were  the  instruments  of  destruction,  the 
carnage  was  ever  to  begin  after  the  strife  was  ended.  In 
almost  all  the  great  pitched  battles  of  antiquity,  the  loss  of 
the  victors  was  merely  nominal — for  proof  of  which,  turn  to 
Marathon,  Plataea,  Cannae — so  true  it  was,  under  the  old 
tactic  and  armament,  that  '^  daring  was  a  rampart  to  an 
army." 

For  the  rest,  the  battle  of  Chaeronea  was  Sylla's,  not  his 
army^s.  It  was  won,  unless  spite  of  incalculable  fortune 
should  have  snatched  it  fromjiis  hands,  before  a  sword  was 
drawn,  by  the  skillful  manoeuvring  of  the  general. 

Like  all  battles  of  modern  times,  but  few  of  antiquity,  it 
was  a  battle  of  manoeuvres  and  positions,  the  centre  and 
wings  of  the  army  being  spread  over  wide  tracts  of  country, 
and  unconnected,  though  in  communication,  instead  of  form- 
ing on  either  side  one  solid  integral  mass,  to  be  victorious  or 
vanquished  at  a  blow. 

The  plan  of  Sylla,  acting  from  a  centre  by  the  radii  on 
the  inner  circumference  of  a  great  arc,  was  to  double  back 
the  left  of  the  enemy  before  it  could  be  succored,  and  that 
annihilated,  to  pierce  and  destroy  the  centre.  In  all  this  he 
was  perfectly  successful  ;  but  the  firmness  with  which  he 
held  his  reserved  left  in  hand,  the  patience  with  which  he 


4Q8  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

awaited  the  full  development  of  the  enemy's  last  move,  the 
unerring  coup  d'oeil  with  which  he  penetrated  his  final  com- 
bination, and  the  rapid  and  crushing  energy  with  which  he 
launched  his  reserve  and  dealt  the  decisive  blow,  prove  him 
one  of  the  greatest,  if  not  the  greatest  strategist  and  tacti- 
cian of  the  Roman  school. 

In  the  previous  manceuvering,  the  countermarching,  the 
mutual  struggles  to  secure  commanding  heights,  and  the  final 
victory  by  the  crushing  of  the  centre,  it  more  resem^tles  Sa- 
lamanca than  any  other  victory,  ancient  or  modern.  Nor 
am  I  sure  that  it  should  not  be  regarded  as  the  most  scien- 
tific combat  of  antiquity. 

Immediately  after  the  victory,  Sylla  pursued  his  late  an- 
tagonist to  Chalcis,  but  having  no  ships,  was  compelled  to 
suffer  his  escape,  with  the  relics  of  his  defeated  army,  to  the 
islands  of  the  Archipelago,  where  he  applied  himself  with 
all  diligence  to  the  collection  of  another  power.  But  while 
there,  tidings  reached  him  of  such  importance  from  Rome, 
that  he  turned  on  his  traces,  and  passing  through  Boeotia, 
entered  Thessaly  with  his  legions,  and  advanced  them  as  far 
as  Meliteia,  a  city  on  the  Enipeus,  not  far  from  the  after- 
ward immortal  plains  of  Pharsalia. 

Marius,  the  old  blood-gorged  lion  of  the  democrats,  had 
died  horribly,  drunken  and  despairing  ;  but  his  party  had 
survived  him,  full  of  fiery  life  and  vigor.  Cinna  had  chosen 
Lucius  Valerius  Flaccus,  a  furious  partizan,  to  be  his  col- 
league in  lieu  of  the  deceased,  and  appointing  him,  as  his 
province,  to  Macedonia  and  the  Mithridatic  War,  sent  him, 
with  two  fresh  legions,  to  Dyrrachium,  under  directions 
to  depose  Sylla,  and  take  his  army  under  his  own  command. 
To  meet  him,  therefore,  the  proud  and  vengeful  patrician 
hastened  inland,  hoping  to  strike  a  blow  at  him,  before  Mi- 
thridates  should  have  gathered  fresh  head,  so  that  he  should 


THE    BASIN    OF    BCEOTIA.  409 

not  have  two  enemies  on  hand  at  once ;  for  Sylla  was  not  one 
to  be  deceived  by  slight  pretexts,  and  well  knew  that  he 
was  himself  the  object  of  Flaccus^  expedition,  as  more  de- 
tested by  the  ruling  faction  at  Rome  than  twenty  kings  of 
Pontus,  had  each  been  ten  times  Mithridates.  Before  the 
new  Consul,  however,  had  penetrated  so  far  into  his  pro- 
vince, hurried  messengers  came  to  Mel i tela,  with  tidings  that 
Dorilaas,  another  of  the  king^s  generals,  had  arrived  at 
Chalcis,  with  a  large  fleet,  and  there  disembarked  eighty 
thousand  new  troops,  the  very  flower  of  Mithridates'  army, 
the  most  soldierly  men,  the  best  armed,  equipped,  and  disci- 
plined, and  that  he  gave  no  heed  to  the  advice  and  experi- 
ence of  Archelaus,  who  dissuaded  him  from  fighting  the 
Romans,  but  was  resolved  to  deliver  battle  on  the  first 
opportunity.  He  determined,  therefore,  to  give  him  the 
occasion  which  he  desired  ;  hoping  to  meet  and  dispose  of 
him  before  the  arrival  of  his  successor,  by  whom  he  had  no 
mind  to  be  succeeded.  Marching  down  to  encounter  him, 
he  fell  in  with  his  advanced  guard,  near  the  fine  spring-head 
of  Tilphossa  and  the  important  fortress  of  Tilphossaeum  on 
the  lake  shore  of  the  Cephissis,  where  he  maltreated  his 
light  troops  so  severely  in  the  skirmishes  which  ensued,  that 
he  half  convinced  him  of  the  soundness  of  Archelaus'  coun- 
cils; so  that  he  was  more  than  a  little  disposed  to  decline 
battle  and  protract  the  war,  when  the  extraordinary  ex- 
penses, difficulty  of  subsistence,  and  want  of  cooperating 
squadrons  on  the  coast,  might  do  on  the  enemy  the  work  of 
the  sword. 

So  soon,  however,  as  they  opened  the  rich  and  splendid 
basin  of  western  Boeotia,  which  consists  of  the  most  fertile 
and  glowing  plains  of  that  country,  uninclosed,  level,  treeless, 
except  about  the  sources  of  the  river  Melas,  close  under  the 
Bteep  cliffs  and  ramparts  of  Orchomenus.  stretching  at  least 
18 


410  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

twelve  miles  in  length,  southwardly,  to  the  lower  spurs  of 
Mount^  Helicon,  near  Coroneia  and  Alalcomense,  and  not 
much  less  westwardly  from  the  marshes  and  lake  Cephissis 
to  the  hills  beyond  Chaeronea,  the  generals  of  the  king  re- 
covered their  spirits,  and  began  to  contemplate  trying  once 
more  the  fortune  of  their  arms. 

Archelaus  remembered  that,  in  the  other  battle  which  he 
had  lost  but  a  few  miles  to  the  westward  of  that  place,  the 
nature  of  the  ground  and  the  broken  chffs,  among  which  he 
was  compelled  to  fight,  deprived  him  of  all  service  from  his 
chariots,  but  that  still  wherever  he  fought  in  person  with  his 
cuirassiers,  they  made  their  mark  even  under  the  worst  dis- 
advantage. Hence  he  persuaded  himself  yet  that,  in  these 
deep,  rich,  verdant  pastures,  where  there  was  not  a  stock  or 
stone  for  miles,  to  impede  the  career  of  the  scythed  cars,  or 
the  rush  of  his  countless  squadrons,  he  should  trample  the 
Romans  under  foot,  in  spite  of  their  soldierly  quaUties  and 
admitted  prowess. 

Dorilaus  had  never  met  European  troops  in  the  field,  until 
in  the  slight  irregular  fighting  of  the  previous  days,  and  had 
lost  too  little  of  the  presumptuous  confidence,  which  is  ever 
the  characteristic,  as  it  is  the  bane,  of  oriental  armies,  to 
hesitate  in  accepting  the  altered  opinion  of  his  colleague. 

Sylla,  on  the  contrary,  who,  determined  as  he  was,  and 
justly  confident  in  the  steadiness  and  valor  of  his  men,  never 
seems  to  have  left  any  thing  to  chance,  which  prudence 
could  ensure,  or  to  have  been  induced  to  that  worst  military 
error,  the  underrating  of  an  enemy,  now  held  somewhat 
back ;  fortifying  himself  with  great  trenches  and  field  works, 
and  employing  his  men  in  cutting  canals,  easily  filled  with 
water  in  those  low-lying  and  irriguous  levels,  which  should 
render  the  firmer  and  more  solid  portions  of  the  plain  im- 


HIS  BRAVERY  AT  ORCHOMENUS.  411 

practicable  for  the  horse,  and  so  deforce  them  toward  the 
marshes. 

But  this  they  were  by  no  means  disposed  to  endure  ; 
wherefore,  launching  their  cavalry  with  spirit,  and  the  men 
charging  home  with  vigor  and  decision,  though  in  somewhat 
loose  array,  they  not  only  cut  to  pieces  the  working  parties, 
but  broke  and  put  to  flight  the  supporting  cohorts,  and 
threw  the  Roman  force  into  such  increasing  confusion,  that 
Sylla  leaped  from  his  horse,  seized  an  eagle,  and  rushed  into 
the  densest  of  the  enemy,  shouting  aloud,  so  that  all  might 
hear  him,  *  ^'  To  me  it  matters  not  if  I  die  here  or  else- 
where. But  you,  O  Romans,  when  any  one  shall  ask  where 
you  left  your  leader,  say,  *  fighting  at  Orchomenus.' " 

The  act  and  the  appeal  were  irresistible.  The  centurions 
and  tribunes  of  the  soldiers  rushed  out  to  support  and  rescue 
their  general,  the  cohorts  rallied  with  a  shout,  and  Sylla,  re- 
mounting, charged  at  their  head,  and  shut  the  enemy  up, 
after  heavy  loss,  within  their  own  palisades. 

Nevertheless,  neglecting  their  losses,  no  sooner  did  the 
working  parties  resume  their  occupation  at  the  trenches, 
than  the  orientals  sallied  again  in  greater  force  and  closer 
order  than  before,  f  Diogenes,  the  son  of  Archelaus'  wife, 
leading  them  gallantly,  till  he  was  struck  down,  and  died' 
literally,  within  the  Roman  trenches.  His  troops,  in  general, 
fought  desperately,  and  with  a  stubborn  courage,  unusual  to 
the  natives  of  the  east,  and  his  archers,  more  especially  ;  for 
when  they  were  mixed  up,  body  to  body  with  the  Romans, 
so  that  they  could  not  use  their  bows,  they  grasped  their 
arrows  by  the  middle,  in  bundles,  having  no  scymeters,  and 
stabbing  at  the  face,  inflicted  cruel  wounds,  until  at  length 
they  were  again  shut  up  in  their  own  camp,  where  they 

*  Plut.  vit.  Syll.  XXI. 

t  Applan  Bell.  Mith.  LXIX. 


412  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

passed  the  night  grievously,  sore  wounded,  and  in  dismay 
yet  sorer. 

No  less  than  fifteen  thousand  men  fell  on  that  day,  ten 
thousand  of  whom  were  admirable  horse  ;  yet  so  much 
alarmed  was  Sylla,  lest  the  enemy  should  escape  him,  as  be- 
fore, by  way  of  Chalcis,  to  his  ships,  that  he  allowed  his 
men  no  leisure  to  celebrate  the  victory,  but  guarded  the 
whole  plain  with  sentries  and  pickets,  posted  at  brief  intervals, 
and  patrolled  it  with  his  cavalry  until  morning.  Then  push- 
ing his  working  parties  and  engineers  up  to  within  a  single 
furlong  of  Archelaus'  camp  and  palisade,  he  circumvallated 
them  with  a  ditch  ten  feet  in  width,  so  that  escape  was  im- 
possible, keeping  so  large  a  body,  both  of  horse  and  foot, 
under  arms,  that  the  king's  generals  dared  not  disturb  him. 

No  sooner,  however,  was  this  arduous  task  accomplished, 
than  the  great  leader,  not  choosing  to  waste  time  in  a 
blockade,  when  he  knew  not  how  soon  Flaccus  might  arrive 
to  supersede  him,  led  out  his  cohorts  to  assail  the  works, 
and  carry  the  encampment  by  storm. 

The  attack,  under  the  eyes  of  the  general,  was  resolute, 
and  well  sustained  ;  but  so  obstinate  was  the  defence,  the 
men  on  both  sides  striking  and  stabbing  at  each  other 
through  the  interstices  of  the  palisade,  and  shooting  over 
the  abbatis,  that,  although  many  great  and  conspicuous  deeds 
of  prowess  were  done,  no  way  was  made  nor  any  advantage 
gained,  until,  at  length,  the  Romans,  forming  the  testudo  of 
shields  above  their  heads,  tore  down  the  palisades  at  a 
salient  angle,  and  the  place  seemed  to  be  won. 

But  the  barbarians  rushed  out  of  the  breach,  and  fought, 
man  to  man  and  sword  to  sword  ;  and  in  such  a  melee  disci- 
pline availing  nought  and  swordsmanship  much,  the  Romans 
were  held  at  bay,  and  all  stood  aloof  from  the  fatal  gorge. 


PILLAGE    OF    BCEOTIA.  413 

which  was  heaped  with  slain,  none  daring  to  be  the  first  to 
rush  upon  the  seymetars. 

At  length  Basillus,*  a  tribune  of  the  soldiers,  and  himself 
commander  of  the  legion,  went  in  with  such  indomitable 
will,  slaying  a  man  at  every  thrust,  that  he  won  the  ram- 
part, and  defended  himself  upon  the  summit  until  he 
was  supported,  when  the  whole  army  poured  in,  and  the  gal- 
lant defence  was  over.  The  carnage  was  incalculable — there 
was  no  retreat — and  all  who  were  not  butchered  without 
mercy,  calling  piteously  in  their  unknown  barbaric  tongues, 
for  quarter,  to  their  slayers,  were  forced  into  the  marshes 
and  lake,  and  either  drowned  or  miserably  stifled  in  the  mud 
of  the  morass. 

Archelaus  remained  for  two  days  concealed  amid  the  great 
reeds  and  lotuses  which  grow  in  these  morasses,  similar  to 
those  of  Egypt,  especially  about  the  junction  of  the  f  Melas 
and  Cephissus,  until  he  was  so  fortunate  as  to  find  a  skiff,  by 
means  of  which  he  got  himself  safely  off  down  the  lake  to 
the  sea-shore,  and  thence  to  Chalcis,  whither  he  speedily  col- 
lected such  miserable  relics  as  could  be  recovered  of  that 
once  royal  army. 

On  the  following  morning  Sylla  crowned  Basillus  as  the 
best  doer  in  that  day's  conflict,  and  gave  up  all  Boeotia  to  be 
pillaged  by  the  army,  in  consequence  of  the  inveteracy 
with  which  they  revolted  from  the  Romans  to  every  new 
enemy. 

Never  was  battle  more  decisive  or  more  bloody  ;  not  a 
living  enemy  was  left  in  Boeotia — this  for  the  second  time  in 
a  single  campaign — the  marshes  were  afloat  with  blood  and 
the  lake  choked  with  corpses  ;  and  Plutarch  bears  testi- 
mony, that  in  his  time,  nearly  two  hundred  years  after  the 

*  Appian.  Bell.  Mith.  L. 
tPlut.vit.Syll.  XX. 


414  ,  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

battle,  barbaric  bows,  helmets,  fragments  of  steel  corslets, 
and  swords  were  found  buried  in  the  mud,  in  such  quantities 
as  to  prove  the  number  of  the  wretches  who  there  found 
living  graves. 

After  rewarding  his  army,  Sylla  went  into  winter  quar- 
ters in  Thessaly,  at  some  point  on  the  sea-coast,  waiting  for 
the  arrival  of  Lucullus  with  ships  ;  and,  being  in  complete 
ignorance  where  he  could  be.  or  what  doing,  since  the  enemy 
were  still  masters  of  the  sea  and  no  advices  reached  him 
from  Rome,  owing  to  the  dominance  of  the  Marian  faction, 
he  applied  himself  to  build  ships  on  the  spot,  and  endeavored 
to  create  a  new  fleet. 

During  this  period,  while  Sylla  was  defeating  his  country ^s 
enemy  with  unheard  of  zeal  and  success,  strange  and  abomi- 
nable things  were  in  process  at  the  seat  of  government. 
Cinna  and  Carbo — the  latter  of  whom  had  succeeded  Flac- 
cus,  when  he  was  dispossessed  of  his  command,  his  army,  and 
his  life  by  Fimbria,  a  subaltern  v/ho  quietly  usurped  his 
consular  imperium — were  filling  "Rome  with  anarchy,  havoc, 
and  consternation;  murdering  this  man  for  his  wealth,  that, 
for  his  noble  birth;  this,  for  his  enmity  to  Marius,  that  for 
his  favor  with  his  rival;  until  all  good  citizens  and  upright 
men  fled  from  the  city,  as  from,  a  place  infested  with  pesti- 
lence, and  doomed  to  ruin. 

At  the  very  time  when  the  great  patrician  chief,  by  his 
last  action,  was  accomplishing  the  perhaps  unrivalled  feat 
of  destroying  in  a  single  campaign,  with  a  single  army,  which 
never  had  exceeded  forty  thousand  men,  which  had  re- 
ceived no  reinforcement  or  supplies,  except  such  as  it  could 
collect  for  itself,  two  separate  hosts  numbering  in  the  aggre- 
gate, two  hundred  thousand  men — and  that  so  completely 
that  ten  thousand  of  them  were  never  again  present  under 
arms  against  Rome — these  factious  fire-brands,  self-elected 


CORRUPTION    OF    MITHRIDATES.  415 

despots  of  the  republic,  were  slaughtering  the  friends,  devas- 
tating the  estates,  burning  the  dwelling-houses  of  the 
strong  and  stern  commander,  who  would  not  even  think  of 
his  own  wrongs,  until  ]je  had  redressed  those  of  his  country. 

At  his  winter-quarters  in  Thessaly,  his  wife  Metella  came 
fleeing  to  him  for  protection,  having  narrowly  avoided  death 
or  worse  dishonor  when  her  house  was  burned  over  her  head, 
bringing  her  children  with  her,  happily  saved  likewise,  and 
escorted  by  such  a  band  of  nobles,  magistrates,  senators,  and 
men  of  consular  dignity,  that  the  camp,  on  the  wild  storm- 
beaten  shores  of  Thessaly,  could  show  as  noble  and  a  purer 
senate  than  that  which  sat  in  the  temples  of  Concord  or 
Peace,  on  the  dishonored  capitol. 

When  spring  broke,  while  Sylla  was  in  doubt  how  to  act, 
being  anxious  to  return  to  Italy,  and  at  the  same  time  reso- 
lute to  conclude  the  war  himself,  partly  from  patriotic 
motives,  partly  from  personal  ambition,  a  message  was 
brought  to  him  from  Archelaus,  which  led  him  to  believe 
that  he  could  gain  his  end  by  negotiation,  more  readily  than 
by  arms.  He  took  ship,  therefore,  to  Delos,  and  had  an  in- 
terview with  the  king^s  general,  in  the  temple  of  Apollo, 
where,  to  his  surprise,  he  was  encountered  by  proposals  from 
Mithridates,  who  was,  it  would  seem,  thoroughly  cognizant 
of  the  affairs  of  Rome,  to  the  end  that  he  should  conclude  a 
private  peace  with  him,  giving  up  Pontus  and  all  Asia  to  his 
sway,  in  consideration  of  which  he  should  be  furnished  with 
a  royal  fleet,  treasures  and  forces,  to  whatever  amount  he 
should  judge  necessary,  for  the  reduction  of  the  democrats 
and  the  subjugation  of  B-ome. 

This  well-timed  and  politic  attempt  at  corruption,  he  met 
with  a  counter  proposal  to  Archelaus  to  betray  the  despot, 
and  surrender  his  fleet,  in  consideration  of  which  he  should 
be  raised  to  the  throne  in  lieu  of  Mithridates. 


416  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

It  is  here,  perhaps,  worthy  of  remark,  that  during  the  ex- 
istence, even  nominal,  of  the  republic,  though  the  instances 
of  Roman  citizens  treasonably  aiming  at  sovereign  power, 
bearing  arms  against  the  state,  and  committing  every  imagi- 
nable crime  against  the  government,  under  their  own  stan- 
dard, for  their  own  hand,  as  Harry  Wynd  fought,  and  to 
promote  their  own  ambitious  views,  are  of  constant  occur- 
rence,— there  does  not  exist  one,  through  the  whole  history 
of  the  commonwealth,  wherein  an  officer  betrayed  his  trust 
to  a  foreign  enemy,  took  arms  against  Rome  in  a  foreign  ser- 
vice, or  in  any  way  gave  fealty  to  a  crowned  head,  or  tam- 
pered with  the  stranger,  even  for  his  own  advantage,  to  sub- 
vert the  commonwealth. 

This  is  the  more  remarkable,  that  of  the  Greek  leaders 
and  statesmen,  who  are  generally  regarded  by  us  as  more  de- 
termined friends  of  liberty,  because  more  ultra-democratic 
than  the  Romans,  there  is  scarce  one  who  did  not  tamper 
with  the  kings  of  Persia,  take  bribes  from  them,  serve  them 
in  arms  against  their  native  cities,  accept  their  aid  for  the 
subversion  of  Greek  liberty,  or  do  some  foul  indirection  in 
their  behalf,  even  when  internecine  war  was  raging  between 
Hellas  and  the  East. 

With  the  Roman,  Rome  was  all  in  all,  even  if  he  might 
choose  himself  to  make  it  his  own  property,  or  to  trample  it 
under  his  feet,  rendering  himself,  by  the  traitorous  deed,  only 
so  much  the  more  Roman.  To  the  Greek,  Greece  was  no- 
thing, or  at  the  best  a  mere  abstraction,  for  he  was  himself 
not  so  much  a  Greek  as  an  Athenian,  a  Spartan,  an  Argive, 
or  a  Theban,  and  could  always  fall  back  on  his  special  state 
individuaUty  against  his  national  generality,  as  honestly  as 
could  Sir  Ralph  de  Yipont,  who  on  being  appealed  to  as  a 
crusader,  could  remember  only  that  he  was  a  Scotchman  be- 
fore he  was  a  Christian. 


PEACE    WITH   MTTHRIDATES.  417 

Be  this  as  it  may,  the  haughty  Koman,  burning  to  slake 
his  thirst  for  vengeance  in  the  dearest  blood  of  Rome, 
scorned  the  proffer.  Perhaps  he  thought  that  the  very  ven- 
geance, which  he'  would  wreak  on  Rome,  would  be  incom- 
plete if  it  were  shared  by  any  but  a  Roman.  He  contented 
himself  with  this  reply:  "  So  you,  *Archelaus,  being  a  Cappa- 
docian,  and  a  slave,  or  if  you  will,  a  friend  of  a  barbarian 
king,  cannot  endure  such  baseness,  even  for  such  reward  ; 
and  yet  to  me,  who  am  a  Roman  general,  and  whose  name 
is  Sylla,  you  dare  to  propose  treason  !  as  if  you  were  not 
that  same  Archelaus  who  escaped  alone,  the  other  day  at 
Chaeronea,  out  of  twelve  myriads,  and  hid  yourself  two 
days  in  the  marshes  of  Orchomenus,  leaving  Boeotia  choked 
by  the  multitude  of  your  own  dead." 

To  this  there  was  no  reply,  nor  any  course  for  Mithridates 
but  to  yield.  Yet  Sylla  needed  the  ships  and  the  treasures, 
and  that  too  for  the  very  end  to  which  they  had  been  offered, 
and  would  have  them.  Yet  he  would  have  Rome  satisfied 
first,  before  he  would  satisfy  himself. 

A  treaty  was  therefore  concluded,  by  which  Mithridates 
should  withdraw  from  all  Asia  Minor,  should  surrender  Bithy- 
nia  to  Nicomedes,  and  Cappadocia  to  Ariobarzanes — these 
being  the  ends,  to  gain  which  war  had  been  declared — and 
should  also  pay  down  two  thousand  talents,  equivalent  to 
about  eight  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling,  and  deliver 
up  seventy  brazen-beaked  ships  of  war  to  the  Romans,  as 
represented  by  Sylla — these  being  the  ends,  for  which  peace 
was  now  concluded. 

Some  delay  occurred  before  the  articles  could  be  arranged; 
and  Sylla  having  advanced  so  far  as  to  the  Hellespont,  or 
Dardanelles,  returned  through  Msedica,  which  he  cruelly  de- 
vastated, into  Macedonia,  where  he  was  soon  after  visited 
*  Plut.  vit.  Sjll.  XXII. 
18* 


418  LUCIUS    C0P.XELIU3    SYLLA. 

by  Archelaus,  inviting  him  to  a  personal  interview  with  Mi- 
thridates.  For  the  king  was  now  ready  to  yield  all,  being 
much  alarmed  by  the  ravages  of  Fimbria,  the  successor  of 
Flaccus,  throughout  Asia  Minor,  and  considering  him  a  foe 
more  easy  to  be  dealt  withal  than  Sylla.  An  interview  was 
arranged  to  take  place  at  Dardanus,  in  the  Troas,  and  thither 
came  the  king,  with  two  hundred  ships  of  war,  twenty  thou- 
sand infantry,  six  thousand  horse,  and  a  heavy  force  of  cha- 
riots, and  the  Roman,  with  four  cohorts  and  two  hundred 
cavalry. 

The  conference  was  marked  by  barbaric  arrogance  on  the 
part  of  the  king,  and  the  traditional  Roman  haughtiness  on 
that  of  Sylla;  and  the  latter  is  said  to  have  replied  to  the 
question  of  Mithridates,  what  would  be  left  to  him  if  he 
should  surrender  Asia  Minor,  Bithynia,  and  Cappadocia,  and 
give  up  his  fleet  and  treasure  ? — "  The  hand,  with  which  you 
slew  a  hundred  thousand  Romans  in  a  single  day." 

From  this  M.  Michelet  argues  that  he  betrayed  Rome, 
and  that  Fimbria,  the  mutineer  and  murderer  of  his  general, 
would  have  obtained  better  terms  for  the  state.  But  of  this  1 
can  discover  nothing  ;  Sylla  gained  all  for  Rome  that  she 
had  ever  demanded,  and  the  means,  moreover,  of  ejecting 
the  bloody  faction  which  illegally  held  sway  in  the  city,  by 
violence,  and  of  reestablishing,  for  the  last  time  but  one,  her 
ancient  constitution. 

Flaccus  himself,  the  late  consul,  was  the  illegal  nominee  of 
an  usurper,  and  Fimbria,  his  murderer  and  successor,  a 
mere  mutineer,  to  put  down  whom  it  was  no  more  than  the 
duty  of  any  Roman  officer.  That  Sylla  was  a  regularly 
constituted  Roman  officer,  and  the  legitimate  leader  against 
Mithridates,  cannot  be  denied,  up  to  this  moment;  and  much 
later,  I  can  discover  nothing  in  his  conduct  beyond  the  line 
of  a  citizen's  and  a  soldier's  duty.    For  the  evil  he  did  after- 


PLUNDER   OF   ATHENS.  419 

ward,  lie  will  be  answerable.  It  and  the  reproach  thereof, 
are  heavy  enough,  without  exaggeration. 

But  for  the  fact — the  treaty  was  concluded,  the  money 
paid,  the  fleet  and  five  hundred  archers  given  up,  and,  the 
stipulated  countries  being  ceded,  Mithridates  was  confirmed 
in  his  ancient  hereditary  dominions,  and  declared  a  friend 
and  ally  of  the  republic.  A  few  days  afterward,  the  army 
of  Fimbria,  who  lay  at  Thy  at  ir  a,  now  Ak  Hissar,  in  Ana- 
toha,  being  summoned,  deserted  their  leader — who  fell  by  his 
own  hand — and  came  over  to  Sylla,  who  at  length  released 
from  the  bonds  of  foreign  duty,  hastened  to  his  appointed 
work  of  retribution  and  revenge. 

Having  now  arranged  everything  in  Asia,  he  at  once  set 
sail  in  his  newly  acquired  fleet,  for  the  Piraeus;  and,  on  land- 
ing at  Athens,  is  said  to  have  plundered  the  city  of  many 
works  of  art,  among  others,  the  fine  library  of  Apellicon  of 
Teos,  containing  the  works  of  Aristotle  and  Theophrastus, 
which  being  conveyed  to  Rome,  came  under  the  supervision 
of  Tyrannion  the  rhetorician,  and  through  him  were  thrown 
open  to  Rhodius  Andronicus,  who  thus  compiled  his  edition 
of  those  great  masters. 

So  strangely  is  the  history  of  art  and  science,  and  even  of 
the  preservation  of  letters,  blended  and  confused  with  records 
of  the  wildest  passions  and  blackest  crimes  of  humanity. 

Being  in  ill-health  at  this  time,  he  proceeded  to  JEdepsus, 
now  Dipso,  in  the  Histiaeotis,  famous  even  then  for  its  medi- 
cinal thermal  waters,  and  to  this  day  the  most  celebrated 
watering-place  in  Greece,  where  he  passed  the  season  in  a 
mixture  of  licentious  luxury,  with  mimes,  buffoons  and  jesters, 
as  if  he  had  no  business  of  moment  on  hand,  nor  anything 
beyond  present  amusement  on  his  mind. 

Yet  at  that  moment  the  doom  was  sealed  of  thousands, 
who  unconsciously  awaited  the  hour  and  the  man,  which 


420  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

coming  they  must  die.  And  those  were  now  both  nigh  at 
hand;  for,  in  the  summer  of  the  year  of  Rome  670,  B.  C.  84, 
Sylla  having  previously  exacted  an  oath  of  fidelity  from  his 
soldiers,  crossed  over  from  Dyrrachium  to  Brundusium  with  one 
thousand  two  hundred  ships  of  war  and  transports,  as  he  states 
in  his  own  memoirs,  cited  by  Plutarch,*  carrying  with  him  five 
Roman  legions,  six  thousand  horse,  and  some  Macedonian  and 
Peloponnesian  auxiliaries, f  mustering  in  all,  forty  thousand 
men,  and  this,  as  he  states  himself,  against  fifteen  hostile 
leaders,  commanding  not  less  than  four  hundred  and  fifty  co- 
horts, making  an  aggregate  of  at  least  two  hundred  and 
seventy  thousand  rank  and  file. 

Had  the  fierce  civil  wars  which  followed,  been  the  result 
merely  of  personal  ambition  between  the  chiefs,  involving  no 
constitutional  or  national  question,  I  should  have  passed 
them  over  as  briefly  as  possible,  but  I  find — a  fact  which 
seems  to  have  strangely  escaped  preceding  writers — that  these 
were,  in  fact,  but  the  termination  of  the  great  social  strug- 
gle between  the  confederated  Italian  states  and  Rome,  which 
should  have  the  mastery.  In  other  words,  whether  the 
whole  of  Italy  should  become  a  Roman  unity,  or  the  city  of 
Rome  be  merely  the  head  of  an  Italian  republic — or, 
once  more,  whether  thereafter  Rome  was  to  rule  Italy,  or 
Italy,  Rome. 

Marius,  as  we  have  seen,  being  an  Italian  by  birth, 
though  a  Roman  magistrate,  had  shunned  his  duty  in  the 
first  social  war,  and  favored  the  allies  in  the  field,  so  evi- 
dently that  he  was  forced  to  resign  his  command,  and  to  fly 
the  country.  During  Sylla-s  absence,  the  democratic  party 
obtaining  a  temporary  ascendancy,  would  have  confirmed 
that  ascendancy  by  introducing  at  once  into  the  old  tribes 

*  Plut.  vit.  Syll.  XXVII. 

t  Appian.  Bell.  Civil.  LXXIX. 


POLICY    OF    SYLLA.  421 

such  an  oyerwhelming  multitude  of  Italians,  as  would  at 
once  give  the  majority  to  the  strangers  and  aliens,  involv- 
ing the  absolute  control,  and,  in  fact,  the  nationality  of 
Rome. 

It  was  for  this,  then,  that  the  Marian  party  were  in  arms — 
to  render  Rome  the  head  of  an  Italian  confederacy,  destroy- 
ing her  time-honored  nationality  and  name,  in  order  that,  as 
Italians,  they  might  preserve  that  power  and  imperium  in 
the  new  Itahc  league,  which  they  had  usurped,  and  felt  that 
they  could  not  retain,  in  the  old  Roman  republic. 

It  was  against  this  project,  or  principle  if  you  will,  that 
Sylla  had  hitherto  contended,  and  was  now  about  to  fight. 
The  son  and  soldier  of  the  ancient  commonwealth  of  Rome, 
it  was  not  for  him  to  ask  whether  the  abstract  right  was 
with  the  confederates  or  with  the  state,  but  to  defend  the 
cause,  uphold  the  supremacy,  and  maintain  the  integrity  of 
his  native  city. 

A  Roman,  he  upheld  his  country  ;  a  noble,  he  upheld  his 
caste,  against  innovations  upon  both,  which  he  undoubt- 
edly believed  to  be  uncalled  for  and  unjust,  which  time 
proved  to  be  ruinous  to  liberty  and  law,  and  which,  after  a 
little  while,  erected  on  the  ruined  altars  of  freedom,  the 
blood-cemented  throne  of  the  imperial  Caesars. 

For  this,  who  shall  blame  him  ?  His  after  cruelties,  the 
horrible  deluges  of  blood,  righteously  or  unrighteously  shed, 
in  which  he  baptized  the  new  constitution,  the  proscriptions, 
the  confiscations,  the  dictatorship,  assumed  only  to  be  cast 
aside,  the  newness  of  its  gloss  scarce  tarnished,  in  scorn  in- 
effable!— These  are  another  question.  For  these,  let  who 
may  justify  him  or  apologise.  Of  a  surety,  that  shall  not  I. 
But  they  reach  not,  affect  not,  the  previous  question,  as  to 
the  origin  of  this  civil  war — and  on  that  point  I  take  issue,  that 
Sylla,  the  regularly  constituted  officer  of  the  republic,  while 


422  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

the  republic  yet  was,  did  well  and  rightly  in  bringing  Roman 
legions  to  the  rescue  and  renewal  of  that  republic,  against 
self-constituted  usurpers,  calling  themselves  Roman  consuls, 
while  fighting  at  the  head  of  Marsic  and  Samnite  armies, 
against  the  integrity  and  empire  of  Rome. 

When  he  had  won  the  battle,  and  beat  down  the  rebel 
leaders  of  the  treason,  had  he  left  the  punishment,  where  it 
should  have  been,  in  the  hands  of  the  true,  re-constituted  pow- 
ers of  the  state,  he  had  done  his  work  thoroughly  and  nobly, 
as  a  conservative,  for  the  ancient  and  honored  constitution ; 
as  a  noble,  for  his  order;  as  a  man,  for  his  native  land. 

Resentment  and  revenge,  pride  and  scorn  and  undying- 
hate,  blinded  his  better  vision,  hardened  his  heart,  turned  his 
hand  to  iron  ;  and  he  bartered  his  birthright  of  immortal 
glory  for  a  debauch  of  blood,  and  a  dictator's  fasces. 

No  opposition  was  offered  to  Sylla  on  his  landing,  by  the 
people  of  Brundusium,  for  which,  in  after  times,  he  rewarded 
them  by  immunities,  which  they  still  enjoyed  in  the  days  of 
Appian.  Shortly  after  his  landing,  he  was  joined  by  Quintus 
Csecilius  Metellus  Pius,  who  had  been  exiled  from  Rome  by 
Marius  and  Catulus,  and  Cneius  Pompeius,  who  was  after- 
ward surnamed  the  Great,  son  of  Pompeius  Strabo,  who  had 
served  with  Sylla  in  the  social  war,  and  was  killed  by  light- 
ning in  his  tent.  This  young  man,  who  was  destined  in 
after  time,  to  play  a  conspicuous  and  unfortunate  part,  far 
above  any  pretensions  to  which  his  merits  could  entitle  him 
— for  he  was  but  a  vain,  vacillating,  common-place  man,  and 
a  mediocre  soldier — brought  with  him  a  single  legion,  and 
shortly  levied  two  others,  with  which  Metellus  and  Sylla, 
both  legally  invested  with  proconsular  dignity,  advanced  into 
the  country. 

The  democratic  rabble  of  Rome,  deserted  by  the  nobles 
and  the  flower  of  the  middle  classes,  regarded  victory  or  an- 


DEFEAT    OF    NORBANUS    AND    MARIUS.  423 

nihilation  as  their  only  choice,  remembering  what  they  had 
done  against  the  family  and  friends  of  Sylla,  while  he  v/as 
absent,  serving  his  country  in  the  field,  and  were  almost 
palsied  with  excessive  terror.  Yet  they  gave  instructions  to 
their  partizan  consuls  to  attack  the  aristocrats  on  the  instant, 
and  spared  neither  energy  nor  devotion  to  collect  means  and 
men,  and  to  raise  auxiliaries  of  the  Italian  faction,  through- 
out all  parts  of  the  peninsula. 

But  nothing  could  check,  though  it  might  delay,  the  ad- 
vance of  the  conqueror.  The  first  meeting  of  the  hostile 
forces  was  near  Capua,  in  Campania,  where  Syfla,  in  person, 
encountered  Norbanus,  one  of  the  consuls,  with  the  younger 
Marius,  defeated  them  with  the  loss  of  six  thousand  killed 
and  many  wounded,  at  the  expense  of  seventy  killed  of  his 
own  party,  and  shut  up  Norbanus  within  the  capital  of  Cam- 
pania. Not  many  days  after  this,  the  proconsuls  advanced 
to  Teano,  and  Lucius  Scipio,  the  consul,  who  had  succeeded 
Cinna,  murdered  by  his  own  soldiers,  moved  against  them 
with  a  second  army,  superior  to  theirs  in  numbers,  but  dis- 
pirited, disaffected,  and  anxious  only  to  obtain  peace.  This 
army  was  easily  brought  round,  during  some  conferences  rela- 
tive to  an  armistice  set  on  foot  with  that  intent,  pending 
which  the  privates  from  both  camps  intermingled  freely ;  and 
on  a  concerted  day  the  consular  forces  went  over  in  a  body, 
with  their  arms,  officers,  and  standards,  leaving  the  consul, 
with  his  son  Lucius,  alone  in  their  paviHon,  ignorant  of  what 
was  in  process — a  thing,  as  Appian  observes,*  not  very  cre- 
ditable to  a  general,  that  he  should  be  alone  ignorant  of  so 
general  a  feeling  in  his  own  command. 

Him  and  hi&  son  Sylla  dismissed  unhurt,  for  he  neither 
chose  to  trust  nor  to  punish  them  ;  and  then  having  endea- 
vored, in  vain,  to  treat  with  Norbanus,  who  was  still  shut 
*  Appian  de  Bell.  Civ.  LXXXV. 


424  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

up  ia  Capua,  pressed  forward,  burning  and  devastating,  as 
hostile,  all  the  Italian  country. 

About  this  time  the  capitol  of  Rome  was  consumed  by 
fire,  and  this  calamity,  which  was  regarded  with  superstitious 
consternation  on  all  sides,  was  attributed  alternately  to 
Norbanus,  Carbo,  and  the  delegates  of  Sylla,  without  any 
evidence  to  shew  which,  if  any,  was  to  blame.  Probably  it 
was  the  result  of  accident ;  but  it  is  useful  to  the  reader  of 
history,  for  it  marks  a  date  ;  having  occurred  on  the  first 
day  before  the  nones  of  Quinctilis,*  corresponding  to  the 
sixth  day  of  July,  of  the  year  of  Rome  670,  the  first  year  of 
the  one  hundred  and  seventy-fourth  Olympiad, f  and  the 
eighty-fourth  before  the  Christian  era. 

No  farther  action  of  moment  occurred  during  the  remain- 
der of  this  campaign,  both  parties  being  occupied  in  exerting 
every  method  to  augment  their  armies,  the  democratic  con- 
suls recruiting  throughout  the  Italian  states,  and  even  into 
the  Gallic  settlements  of  the  Transpadane,  and  Sylla  col- 
lecting to  his  standards  all,  whom  he  could  find  friendly  to 
Rome. 

The  season  of  inaction  was  protracted  by  the  extreme  in- 
clemency of  the  weather,  and  the  following  campaign  did 
not  open  until  late  in  the  spring  of  83,  B.  C,  Papirius, 
Carbo,  and  Marius  the  younger,  nephew  of  Caius,  being  the 
consuls  of  the  year,  the  latter  but  twenty-seven  years  of  age. 
The  first  action  was  fought  near  the  river  JEsis,  now  the 
Esino,  in  the  Picene  country,  between  Metellus  and  Carrina, 
one  of  Carbo's  generals,  in  which  the  latter  was  defeated 
with  great  loss,  when  all  the  surrounding  country  came  over 
to  Metellus  ;  but  Carbo  came  down  on  the  victor  in  force, 
and  shutting  him  up  in  his  entrenched  camp,  besieged  him 

*  Plut.  vit.  Syll.  XXVII. 
t  Appian,  ibid.  LXXIY. 


YIGTORIES    OF    SYLLA.  425 

closely,  until  tidings  of  a  desperate  defeat  which  had  befallen 
his  colleague,  near  Prseneste,  obliged  him  to  raise  the  siege 
and  consult  for  his  safety  by  decamping  toward  Ariminum, 
during  which  operation  Pompeius  overtook  his  rear  guard, 
and  threw  it  into  great  confusion. 

The  defeat  of  Marius  was  in  this  wise  ;  Sylla  had  taken 
Setia,  a  town  of  Latium,  not  far  distant  from  the  port  and 
city  of  Antium,  when  Marius,  who  was  encamped  near  him, 
fell  back  to  a  place  called  Sacriportum,  where  he  prepared 
to  deliver  battle,  and  at  first  made  some  good  fighting.  But 
his  left  wing  giving  way  a  little,  five  cohorts  of  foot  and  two 
of  horse  threw  away  their  standards,  and  hurrying  across 
the  plain,  ranged  themselves  on  the  side  of  Sylla.  Then 
commenced  a  fearful  route.  The  whole  army,  panic-stricken, 
fled  headlong,  the  enemy  doing  terrible  execution  on  their 
rear,  until  pursuers  and  pursued,  pell  mell,  arrived  at  the 
fortified  and  reputed  impregnable  stronghold  of  Prseneste. 
The  foremost  fugitives  were  admitted  into  the  walls,  but  as 
the  enemy  was  mixed  confusedly  with  their  friends,  the  citi- 
zens closed  the  gates  and  Marius  himself  was  drawn  over 
the  battlements  with  ropes,  in  time  only  to  escape  the  after 
carnage.  No  quarter  was  given,  for  the  fugitives  were 
Samnites  and  ItaUans,  and  of  them  Sylla  took  no  prisoners, 
but  put  all  to  the  sword,  in  reward  of  their  unvarying  enmity 
to  Rome.  In  this  action  he  killed  twenty  thousand  of  the 
enemy,  his  own  loss  being  twenty-three. 

Simultaneously  with  this  defeat,  Metellus  conquered  a 
third  army  of  Carbo's,  five  cohorts  having  deserted  to  him  in 
like  manner,  in  the  heat  of  battle  ;  and  Pompeius  beat 
Marcius  near  the  city  of  Sienna,  and  plundered  the  town  ; 
while  Sylla  having  circumvallated  Prgeneste,  left  the  block- 
ade to  Lucretius  Ofella,  intending  to  let  famine  do  its  work 
in  preferencie  to  the  sword. 


426  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

From  this  time,  fortune  smiled  no  more  on  the  Marian 
party  ;  wherever  they  met  the  constitutionalists,  they  eithei 
lost  their  armies  by  total  or  partial  defection,  or  were  de- 
feated and  dispersed  irretrievably,  with  mere  nominal  loss  on 
the  part  of  Crassus,  Pompeius,  Metellus,  Servilius  or  Sylla, 
in  person,  not  one  of  whom  encountered  a  check,  much  less 
a  defeat,  but  pushed  forward  steadily,  step  by  step,  taking 
possession  of  the  whole  country  as  they  passed  on,  until  the 
walls  of  Rome,  and  the  Campus  Martins,  and  the  Colline 
gates,  against  which  Hannibal  is  said  to  have  hurled  his 
javelin,  were  in  full  view,  and  the  reward  of  all  their  toils 
and  perils  appeared  doubtless  to  be  won. 

But  there  was  yet  one  more  struggle.  For  Pontius  of 
Telesia,  personally  and  hereditarily  the  deadliest  enemy  of 
Rome,  with  Lamponius  the  Lucanian,  and  Damasippus,  and 
Carrina,  with  immense  levies,  had  made  a  desperate  effort  to 
raise  the  siege  of  Praeneste  and  liberate  Marius;  but  being 
frustrated  in  this  attempt  by  the  arrival  of  Pompey  and 
Crassus,  with  the  advanced  guards  of  Sylla,  they  made  a 
sudden  movement  on  Rome,  hoping  to  carry  it  by  a  coup  de 
main,  and  narrowly  missed  their  object. 

All  was  confusion  within  the  walls  ;  and  the  cries  of  the 
women,  running  about,  tearing  their  hair  and  shrieking,  as 
if  the  city  were  already  taken  by  assault,  were  heard  far  and 
near,  when  Sylla^s  light  horse  came  in  sight,  and,  halting 
long  enough  only  to  wipe  the  sweat  from  their  chargers  and 
sponge  out  their  nostrils,  fell  on  with  spirit,  and  so  opened 
the  fiercest  action  of  the  war. 

As  fast  as  Sylla's  men  arrived  on  the  ground,  despite  the 
remonstrances  of  his  lieutenants,  who  deprecated  his  carry- 
ing troops,  directly  off  so  severe  a  forced  march,  into  action, 
they  were  hurried,  coliort  after  cohort,  into  the  conflict, 
without  a  moment's  delay;  and,  after  a  most  appalling  strag- 


PERSONAL   EXPOSURE.  '  42 1 

gle,  conquered.  Never,  however,  did  Sylla  so  nearly  lose  a 
battle.  It  was  nearly  three  o^elock  in  the  afternoon  of  a 
hot  summer's  day  when  the  first  charge  was  made,  and  the 
constitutionalists  had  been  marching  in  their  heavy  armor, 
and  in  close  order,  in  pursuit,  through  clouds  of  dust,  and 
under  a  fierce  Italian  sun,  since  day-break. 

The  right  wing,  commanded  by  Crassus,  from  the  first  on- 
set, carried  all  before  it;  but  the  left,  which  came  straggling 
into  action,  was  taken  in  detail,  and  so  severely  handled, 
that  it  was  on  the  point  of  giving  way,  when  Sylla  came  up 
to  its  support,  galloping  along  the  front,  on  a  white  horse, 
conspicuous  for  its  speed  and  spirit,  cheering  his  men  with 
word  and  gesture,  and  rallying  them  to  the  action.  Well 
known  to  all  on  both  sides,  so  desperate  an  exposure  of  his 
person  could  not  but  induce  the  last  danger.  He  was 
marked  by  two  of  the  enemy's  horsemen,  who  rode  at  him 
with  their  javelins  levelled,  as  he  careered  along  the  front 
unmindful  of  them  and  intent  only  on  reforming  his  waver- 
ing and  dispirited  lines,  and  hurled  their  weapons,  with  aim 
so  correct,  that  they  would  both  have  taken  effect  on  his 
person,  had  not  his  groom,  who  rode  close  at  his  heels,  lashed 
his  charger  so  suddenly  and  severely  from  behind,  that  he 
made  a  great  bound  forward,  and  the  spears  actually  passing 
through  his  tail,  stood  quivering  in  the  ground. 

Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  all  his  exertions,  all  his  entrea- 
ties and  supplications  to  a  small  golden  Apollo,  whom  he 
ever  carried  in  his  bosom  in  his  battles,  and  whom  he  now 
implored,  with  kisses  and  almost  with  tears — "  To  aid  his 
ever  fortunate  Cornelius  Sylla,  whom  he  had  raised  to  splen- 
dor in  so  many  battles,  nor  to  suffer  him  to  perish  here,  at 
the  very  gates  of  his  native  city,  utterly  disgraced  and  ruined 
amid  the  ruin  of  his  fellow-citizens," — he  could  not  on  his 
wing  retrieve  the  fortunes  of  the  day,     On  that  flank  the 


428  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

day  was  irretrievably  lost,  and  the  great  leader  was  himself 
borne  back  by  the  rush  of  his  own  fugitives  into  his  own 
camp,  which  he  fortified  as  best  he  might,  supposing  that  the 
tide  of  fortune  had  changed  altogether,  and  that  the  battle 
had  gone  against  him.  He  lost  many  of  his  men,  it  is  true, 
and  numbers  of  the  citizens  of  Rome  of  his  party,  who  had 
come  out  to  see  the  battle,  were  slain  and  trampled  nnder 
foot  by  the  Italians  ;  nay,  the  siege  of  Freeneste  was  almost 
raised,  and  Marius  allowed  to  escape,  for  such  a  crowd  of 
fugitives  who  had  fled  even  to  that  place,  rushed  into  the 
lines  of  Lucretius  Ofella,  crying  out  that  Sylla  was  slain 
and  all  lost,  that  it  required  the  utmost  firmness  and  deci- 
sion in  that  officer  to  resist  the  panic  and  maintain  the 
blockade. 

In  the  dead  of  night,  glad  tidings  came  to  Sylla,  as  he 
sat  alone  in  his  tent  disconsolate,  for  the  first  time  in  his 
life  believing  himself  to  be  a  beaten  soldier — messengers 
from  Crassus,  who  had  entirely  conquered  the  left  and 
centre  of  the  confederates,  killing  Pontius  Telesinus  and 
Albinus  on  the  field,  and  chased  the  disorganized  relics  of 
what  was  no  longer  an  army,  so  far  as  to  Antemnae,  where 
he  had  pitched  his  bivouac,  and  whither  he  now  requested 
Sylla  to  forward  supplies  for  himself  and  his  legions,  since 
they  were  weary,  supperless,  and  hungry. 

In  this  final  action  about  fifty  thousand  men,  on  both 
sides,  were  left  dead  on  the  field  of  battle  ;  eight  thousand 
were  taken  prisoners,  chiefly  Samnites  ;  and  of  these  six 
thousand,  together  with  Marcius  Damasippus,  and  Carrina, 
their  leaders,  were  shut  up  in  the  hippodrome  and  butchered 
by  volleys  of  arrow-shot  and  javelins,  while  the  conqueror 
was  calmly  addressing  the  senate,  whom  he  had  convened  in 
the  temple  of  Bellona. 
.The  hideous  clamor  of  the  wretches,  howling  in   their 


CHARACTER  OF  SYLLa's  CRUELTY,  429 

hopeless  agony,  within  so  small  a  space,  and  that  little  re- 
moved from  the  shrine  in  which  the  senate  were  listening  to 
the  graceful  and  polished  orator,  whose  rounded  periods  fell 
from  the  lips  which  had  so  recently  issued  those  bloody 
orders  as  if  they  had  been  the  tidings  of  salvation  rather 
than  the  doom  of  thousands,  shook  the  equanimity  and  dis- 
tracted the  attention  of  the  senators.  They  rose  to  their 
feet,  gazed  uncertainly  about  them,  and,  negligent  of  the 
speaker,  spoke  to  each  other  in  whispers  ;  nor  did  it  greatly 
reassure  them,  or  tend  much  to  allay  their  apprehensions, 
when  with  a  calm  and  unmoved  countenance  the  consul  re- 
quested them  to  give  their  attention  to  the  matters  before 
the  house,  and  to  pay  no  heed  to  what  was  going  on  without, 
for  it  was  but  a  few  of  the  guilty  who  were  undergoing 
punishment  by  his  orders.  In  the  like  spirit  he  gazed  on 
the  head  of  the  younger  Marius,  who  died  by  his  own  hand, 
when  Prseneste  was  surrendered,  with  a  quiet  philosophizing 
smile,  as  it  was  laid  before  him  in  the  crowded  forum. 
^*  Ha  I"  he  said  quietly,  *'  the  young  man  should  have 
learned  to  pull  at  the  oar,  before  he  aspired  to  steer  the 
ship." 

And  this  spirit  it  is,  which  rendered  his  massacres  and 
proscriptions  so  terrible  to  the  Romans  ;  Marius,  they  said, 
slaughtered  through  cruelty,  through  hatred,  through  furious 
passions,  through  blind  lust  of  blood,  like  an  insane  wild 
beast ;  but  Sylla  kills  with  a  cool  pulse,  an  unmoved  counte- 
nance, a  quiet  voice,  like  an  impassive  calculating  machine. 

Both,  unquestionably,  were  utterly  reckless  of  human 
suffering  or  death  ;  but,  perhaps,  it  was  that  Marius  loved 
blood  for  its  own  sake,  and  that  Sylla  had  no  sympathy  with 
mere  life,  when  any  thing  was  to  be  gained  by  the  taking  it. 
And  in  this  consideration,  it  is  not  unworthy  of  remark,  that 
Caius  Julius  Cassar,  himself  a  member  of  the  democratic 


430  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA 

faction,  and  himself,  as  some  say,  having  barely  escaped  Sylla's 
proscription,  spoke  some  years  afterward  in  full  senate,  when 
pleading  against  the  execution  of  capital  punishment  on  the 
Catilinarian  conspirators,  in  these  memorable  words  :* — 
'^  Even  within  our  own  memory,  when  victorious  Sylla  com- 
manded Damasippus  and  many  others  of  his  gang,  who  had 
grown  great  by  public  wrong,  to  be  slaughtered,  who  did  not 
rejoice  ?  All  said,  that  those  factious  and  infamous  men 
who  had  cruelly  tormented  the  commonwealth  by  their  sedi- 
tions, well  deserved  to  die." 

And  if  such  be  the  deliberate  testimony  of  a  contempora- 
neous Roman,  of  the  hostile  faction,  while  pleading  for  the 
life  of  traitors,  how  can  we  doubt  that  it  was  indeed  a  hor- 
rible truth — that,  during  those  long  years  of  rebellion,  trea- 
son, plunder,  assassination,  butchery,  the  gangs  of  licensed 
murderers  had  so  grown  and  become  so  thoroughly  engrafted 
on  the  state,  as  to  require  a  stronger  hand,  and  a  will  more 
resolute  than  that  of  the  ordinary  magistrate,  a  keener  eye 
to  detect,  and  a  sharper  sword  to  punish  guilt,  than  those  of 
the  tardy  and  blindfold  goddess,  justice. 

On  this  odious  topic,  it  is  alike  repugnant  and  useless  to 
dwell.  I  am  not,  as  I  have  said,  about  to  become  an  apolo- 
gist for  aristocratic,  more  than  for  plebeian,  cruelty,  much 
less  to  acquit  the  great  captain  of  unnecessary  bloodshed  and 
unlicensed  vengeance. 

He  first  set  the  awful  example  of  licensed  murders  and 
legitimate  proscriptions,  and  the  consequences  of  the  accursed 
precedent  which  he  introduced,  perhaps  believing  that  he 
was  executing  only  unbiassed  and  unpitying  justice,  fell  with 
unmitigated  weight  on  the  heads  of  his  own  party  ;  and  the 
counter-proscriptions  of  the  future  triumvirates,  by  extir- 
pating all  the  purest  and  most  virtuous  citizens  of  Rome, 
*  Sallust  Catllirie,  51. 


HIS    END.  431 

robbed  the  republic  of  its  only  true  defenders,  and  laid  the 
foundations  for  the  iron  empire. 

Of  this,  at  least,  he  cannot  be  held  innocent.  His  reforms, 
his  re-organization  of  the  republic,  his  renewal  of  the  old 
constitution,  passed  away  and  perished,  because  there  was 
no  soil  left  wherein  the  seeds  of  regeneration  might  take 
root  and  germinate.  But  the  terrible  examples  of  his  civic 
conquests,  civic  slaughters,  and  civic  usurpation  did  not  pass 
away  or  die  fruitless;  for  in  the  vicious,  the  ambitious,  the 
perverted  heart  of  man,  there  is  ever  soil  wherefrom  to  ripen 
the  germs  of  cruelty  and  lust  of  power. 

But  it  must  be  said  of  him,  that  when  he  had  constituted 
himself  perpetual  dictator,  he  held  that  dictatorship  only, 
until  he  had  completed  his  punishments,  his  reformations,  his 
reestabUshment  of  what  certainly  he  did  believe  good  and 
right;  and  cast  it  from  him  scornfully,  neither  caring  to  derive 
personal  aggrandizement  from  its  retention,  nor  fearing  per- 
sonal danger  from  its  abdication. 

It  must  be  remembered,  that  as  a  soldier,  in  which  view 
above  all  others,  I  have  to  deal  with  him,  he  was  the  greatest 
of  his  time,  of  liis  name,  and  among  the  first,  if  not  first,  of 
his  nation  ;  that  as  a  reformer,  he  was  not  a  mere  puller 
down,  but  a  builder  up,  and  regenerator  likewise  ;  that,  with 
more  enemies  than  any  man  in  Italy,  he  lived  peaceably  and 
in  solitude  in  his  beautiful  home  at  Cumae,  or  walked  un- 
guarded and  unarmed  through  the  crowded  streets  of  Rome, 
with  no  dagger  lifted  against  him,  and  what  is  more,  with 
no  fears  in  his  secret  soul  to  give  the  dagger  edge.  It  must 
be  remember^ed,  that  when  he  died  calmly  in  his  bed,  of  a 
horrible  and  loathsome  disorder,  never  such  a  concourse  fol- 
lowed the  corpse  of  any  Roman  to  the  grave,  as  pursued, 
not  with  curses,  but  with  offerings  and  honors,  and  the 


432  LUCIUS    CORNELIUS    SYLLA. 

groans  and  libations  of  men,  the  tears  and  rich  funeral  gifts 
of  women,  the  body  of  Cornelius  Sylla. 

It  must  be  remembered,  that,  when  ^NTero  died,  if  some 
affectionate  hand  hung  daily  flowers  upon  the  urn  of  Nero, 
it  is  that  there  was  even  in  Nero  something  which  had 
excited,  something  which  had  deserved  human  affection. 

His  character  is,  perhaps,  the  best  summed  up  in  the  epi- 
taph, said  to  be  of  his  own  composition,  which  was  engraved 
on  his  urn  : — 

LUCIUS  CORNELIUS  SYLLA,  FELIX  j 

WHOM  NO  MAN  EVER  OVERCAME,   IN  THE   GOOD  DONE  TO  HIS  FRIENDS, 
OR  THE  EVIL  TO  H13  FOES. 


vn. 

CAIUS  JULIUS  CJISAR. 

FIVE  TIMES  CONSUL,   PERPETUAL    DICTATOR. 

HIS  YOUTH  AND  PRETENSIONS. GALLIC,  GERMANIC,    BRITISH  CAM- 
PAIGNS.  BATTLES      OF     PHARSALIA,      ALEXANDRIA,      THAPSUS, 

MUNDA. PERPETUAL  DICTATORSHIP  AND  DEATH. 


Anid  Crassos,  quid  Pompeios  evertit  ?  et  iUum 
Ad  sua  qui  domitos  deduxit  flagra  Quirites  ? 
Summus  nempe  locus,  nulla  non  arte  petitus, 
Magnaque  numinibus  vota  exandita  malignia. 
Ad  generum  Cereris  sine  csede  et  vulnere  pauci 
Discendunt  reges,  et  sicca  morte  tyranni. 

This  great  soldier  and  extraordinary  man,  who  presents 
in  many  instances  an  almost  perfect  antetype  to  the  yet 
greater  soldier  and  more  extraordinary  man,  who  played  a 
part  almost  similar  to  his  own,  in  the  commencement  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  first  springing,  self-made,  into  light, 
among  the  throes  and  struggles  of  a  convulsed  and  tor- 
tured republic,  to  which  he  was  destined  to  deal  the  death- 
blow, and  on  the  ashes  of  which  to  build  the  throne  of  an 
imperial  dynasty,  was  born  in  the  six  hundred  and  fifty- 
fourth  year  of  Rome,  B.  C.  100,  in  the  sixth  consulship  of 
Gains  Marius,  to  whom  he  was  connected  in  the  female  line, 
on  the  tenth  day  of  the  month  Quinctilis,  the  name  of  which, 
at  a  later  date,  was,  in  honor  of  him,  changed  to  Julius,  and 


434  '      CAIUS   JULIUS    C^SAR. 

so  remains,  under  a  different  and  more  advanced  civilization, 
to  the  present  day. 

He  was  descended,  as  his  gentile  name  indicates,  from  the 
ancient  and  noble  Julian  house,  which  affected  to  trace  its 
hereditary  descent  to  Julius,  the  son  of  iEneas,  and  foun- 
der of  Alba  Longa  ;  but  which,  without  calling  into  ac- 
count the  legends  of  mythical  traditions,  had  sufficient  title 
to  its  honorable  antiquity  in  the  fact,  that  it  gave  -to  the 
republic,  within  the  first  century  of  its  existence,  thirteen 
officers  of  the  highest  grade,  ten  consuls  or  military  tribunes, 
one  decemvir,  one  dictatorial  master  of  the  horse,  and  one 
censor,  the  highest  dignities,  without  exception,  in  the  gift 
of  the  state. 

It  is  true  that  the  family  name  of  Caesar  does  not  appear 
as  one  of  the  branches  of  this  distinguished  clan,  but  that 
in  no  wise  goes  to  discredit  the  descent  ;  since,  as  has  been 
demonstrated  above,*  the  names  of  families  frequently  origi- 
nated in  some  personal  characteristic  or  quality  of  the  first 
founder,  and  this  is  said  to  have  been  the  case  in  the  present 
.  instance  ;  three  different  accounts  being  given  of  the  deriva- 
tion of  this  name  and  title  of  Caesar,  thereafter  to  be  recog- 
nized as  imperial,  through  so  many  centuries  and  o^er  so 
many  realms,  one  of  them  f  at  least  far  beyond  the  ultima 
Thule,  and  not  yet  included  within  the  terra  cognita  of  anti- 
quity. According  to  Pliny,  the  first  of  the  house  who  bore 
this  cognomen,  took  it  from  cctdo^  to  cut,  because  he,  like 
Macbeth, 

"  Was  from  his  mother's  womb 
Untimely  ripped." 

Others  derive  the  appellation  from  casarits^  as  if  he  had 
*  Marius,  P.  252 
t  Russia.  Tsar,  quasi  Caesar. 


THE    NAME    OF    C^SAR.  435 

been  born  with  long  flowing  hair  ;  and  others,  yet  again, 
from  casa^  alleged  to  be  the  Punic  word  signifying  ele- 
phant, as  if  the  founder  of  the  house  had  been  the  Roman 
who  slew  the  first  elephant  in  the  Italian  campaigns  of 
Pyrrhus,  when  his  countrymen  became  acquainted,  for  the 
first  time,  with  that  prodigious  animal.  The  last  derivation 
rests  itself  on  a  problem,  it  no  where  appearing  that  the 
word  casa  does  signify  elephant,  either  in  Punic,  an  abso- 
lutely extinct  language,  or  in  any  other  tongue.  The  second 
explanation  has  been  rejected  by  all  authorities,  and  that  of 
Pliny  received  the  general  sanction  of  his  contemporaries,  if 
not  of  oral  tradition. 

It  affords,  however,  the  strongest  corroboration  to  the 
accredited  pedigree  of  the  house,  that  the  same  prsenomina, 
answering  to  the  modern  Christian  names.  Gains  and  Lucius, 
were  peculiar  to  members  of  the  Julian  clan,  from  the  first 
consul  of  the  name,  in  the  twentieth  year  of  the  republic,  to 
the  kinsmen  of  the  object  of  this  memoir,  murdered  by 
Marius  and  Cinna  during  their  brief  and  bloody  ascendancy, 
his  father  and  himself,  in  its  seventh  century,  and  but  shortly 
before  its  dissolution. 

Cains  Caesar,  himself  a  man  of  praetorian  dignity  and  con- 
siderable wealth  and  influence  in  the  state,  married  Aurelia, 
a  sister  of  the  celebrated  Marcus  Aurelius  Cotta,  a  lady  of 
the  noblest  Roman  birth,  and  his  sister  Julia  was  married  to 
the  elder  Marius,  so  that  his  son,  of  whom  I  am  now  writing, 
was  nephew,  by  courtesy,  to  that  great  demagogue,  and  first 
cousin  to  his  heir  and  successor  in  treason,  if  not  in  power. 

I  have  dwelt  somewhat  more  particularly  on  this  point 
than  I  should  otherwise  have  deemed  necessary,  inasmuch  as 
the  circumstances  of  his  birth  and  of  his  political  predilec- 
tions and  career,  completely  countering  his  aristocratic  ori- 
gin, throw  much  light  on  his  particular  character,  motives 


436  CAIUS   JULIUS    C^SAR. 

and  aspirations,  from  the  earliest,  and  confirm,  or,  I  might 
say,  prove  the  position  taken  in  the  sketches  of  Marius  and 
Sylla,  in  relation  to  the  nature  of  the  later  civil  contentions 
in  Rome — whether  there  was  any  real  conflict  of  democratic 
and  aristocratic  principle  involved  in  the  struggle  between 
what  were  called  the  democratic  and  aristocratic  parties — or 
whether  the  strife  lay  not  between  a  faction  of  able,  irrespon- 
sible, dissolute  men  of  all  origins,  castes,  and  conditions, 
bent  on  securing  absolute  dominion,  through  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  foreign  element  into  the  state — in  fact  through 
anarchy  itself — and  the  defenders  of  the  ancient  representa- 
tive republic,  now  denounced  by  the  ultraists  as  aristocrati- 
cal,  and  worn  out. 

This  question  will  solve  itself  as  we  proceed,  to  the  under- 
standing of  any  who  will  examine  the  singular  combination 
of  desperate  men,  members  of  all  the  different  extinct 
parties  who  henceforth  banded  themselves  together  against 
the  constituted  republic,  with  its  representative  forms,  its 
senate,  and  its  legitimate  authorities  ;  having  no  seeming 
link  of  union  beyond  hatred  to  the  existing  condition  of 
things,  and  a  leaning  toward  aliens  and  foreigners  of  all 
nations,  however  barbarous  or  brutal,  whom  they  persisted  to 
introduce  into  the  state,  for  the  purpose  of  overwhelming 
the  Roman  vote  and  annihilating  the  nationality  of  the  city 
I  shall  therefore  allude  to  it  no  farther  until  events  bring  it 
distinctly  before  us,  but  shall  proceed  directly  to  the  facts  of 
his  life  and  career  ;  premising  only  that  my  readers  must 
not  look  for  so  close  and  elaborate  an  examination  of  every 
several  skirmish  and  action  of  a  general,  whose  public  life 
covered  a  space  of  thirty-five  years,  almost  every  year  of 
which  was  a  campaign,  as  they  would  rightfully  expect  in 
the  case  of  a  strategist,  whose  claims  to  consideration  rest  on 


\ 

FIRST    STEP    IN    POLITICS.  43*1 

two  or  three  well-executed  and  conceived  campaigns,  two  or 
three  well-delivered  or  well-fought  battles. 

Planets  are  measured  by  distances,  comets  by  epochs  ; 
ordinary  men  and  good  generals  are  judged  by  their  actions, 
great  geniuses,  whether  good  or  evil  Caesars,  Alexanders, 
Napoleons,  Washingtons,  by  the  results  and  consequences 
of  what  they  have  done. 

In  the  sixteenth  year  of  his  age,*  he  lost  his  father,  and 
being  appointed  Flamen  Dialis,  high-priest  of  Jupiter,  he 
put  away  Cossutia,  a  rich  girl  of  equestrian  family,  to  whom 
he  had  been  betrothed  before  he  had  assumed  the  garb  and 
privileges  of  manhood,  and  married  Cornelia,  the  daughter 
of  Cinna,  the  leader  of  the  popular,  or  as  I  shall  henceforth 
designate  it,  the  Itahan  party  after  the  death  of  Marius,  at 
that  time  serving  his  fourth  consulship. 

This  may  be  regarded  as  the  first  step  of  his  life,  an  act 
clearly  of  his  own  doing,  indicating  the  course  he  intended 
to  pursue  in  the  politics  of  the  state,  as  it  involved  his  abne- 
gation of  the  traditional  principles  of  his  house,  two  of  the 
most  distinguished  members  of  which,  Lucius  Julius  Caesar, 
the  conqueror  of  the  Samnites  during  the  social  war,  and 
Caius  Julius  Caesar,  his  brother,  a  celebrated  wit  and  orator, 
were  murdered  by  the  orders  of  Marius  and  the  very  man 
whose  daughter  he  now  espoused.  Henceforth,  therefore, 
he  was  regarded  as  probably  he  intended  it,  as  having  em- 
braced the  principles  of  the  revolution,  and  linked  his  for- 
tunes with  those  of  the  Italian,  anti-Roman  party,  to  which 
may  be  ascribed  all  the  troubles  which  thereafter  agitated 
the  state,  until  the  convulsions  of  the  dying  republic  subsided 
into  the  still  sleep  of  centrahzed  despotism. 

But  Caius  Caesar — for  as  such,  and  never  as  Julius  Caesar, 
was  he  known  to  his  contemporaries — was  by  far  too  clear- 
*  Suetonius,  1.  1. 


438  CAIUS   JULIUS    C^SAR. 

headed  and  clear-sighted  a  man  to  attach  himself  to  any 
party  or  person,  longer  than  it  suited  his  own  prospects 
and  subserved  to  his  own  ascendancy.  Never,  during  his 
long  meteoric  career,  did  he  ally  himself  to  any  person,  whom 
he  did  not  turn  wholly  to  his  own  uses,  whom  he  did  not  sa- 
crifice instantly  when  he  could  no  longer  be  rendered  useful, 
or  when  his  own  advancement  rendered  his  ruin  necessary. 

In  addition  to  wonderful  abilities,  extreme  learning,  elo- 
quence second  to  no  one,  save  Cicero,  of  his  own  day,  perfect 
mastery  of  all  martial  and  athletic  exercises,  boundless  libe- 
rality, whether  of  his  own  or  of  other's  affluence,  rare 
address,  deep  dissimulation,  undisturbed  affability,  an  address 
the  most  conciliating,  a  will  of  adamant,  and  a  heaven- 
reaching  genius,  he  possessed  this  advantage  when  it  came  to 
the  struggle,  over  all  his  antagonists — that  while  they  were 
divided  between  counsels,  actuated  by  many  principles,  not  a 
few  self-conflicting,  and  aiming  at  many  ends,  he  had, 
from  the  beginning,  one  principle,  one  end — to  advance  himself 
by  all  means,  risks,  sacrifices,  to  supreme  dominion.  They 
were  divided,  whether  as  his  friends  or  his  foes,  and,  taken 
in  detail,  busied  each  about  his  petty  several  ends,  fell  one 
by  one.  He  was  himself  alone  his  own  counsellor,  intriguer, 
actor ;  and  pressing  resolutely,  silently,  immutably,  alway 
onward  to  his  one  grand  object,  from  which  his  eagle  eye 
never  swerved  for  a  moment,  of  course  won  it. 

From  this  day  forth,  when  he  fixed  his  prophetic  gaze 
upon  ''  that  more  than  mortal  crown,  the  dictatorial 
wreath,"  resolved  to  shadow  his  brows,  prematurely  bald, 
with  the  perpetual  crown  of  unfading  bays,  he  never  hedged 
aside  from  the  direct  road,  no,  not  a  single  pace  ;  he  never 
hesitated,  never  shook.  No  danger  appalled,  no  infamy  de- 
terred, no  friendship  dissuaded,  no  love  distracted,  no  sacri- 
fice revolted  him — whether  of  friendship,  love,  life,  virtue, 


THE    SOCIAL    WAR.  439 

honor,  from  winning  what  he  had  resolved  to  win,  when  but 
a  beardless  boy. 

Almost  simultaneously  with  his  marriage,  his  father-in-law, 
Cinna,  was  murdered  by  his  soldiery,  whom  he  had  so 
thoroughly  indoctrinated  in  rebellion,  that  they  rebelled  once 
too  often,  even  for  him,  arch-rebel. 

Sylla,  the  avenger  of  noble  blood,  landed  at  Brundusium; 
and,  army  after  army  either  slaughtered  in  the  field  or  se- 
duced from  their  leaders,  the  host  of  the  anarchists,  the  four 
hundred  and  fifty  cohorts  and  their  fifteen  generals,  melted 
like  wax  before  the  fire,  in  the  fierce  heat  of  the  Patrician 
victor^s  progress. 

In  the  last  bloody  and  long-disputed  battle,  before  the 
CoUine  gates  and  under  the  very  walls  of  Rome,  fell  Pontius 
Telesinus,  fell  the  last  and  best  army  of  the  true  Italians  ; 
and  never  again,  though  factions  might  rally  to  the  stan- 
dard of  their  cause,  and  ambitious  men  use  their  name  as 
the  stepping-stone  whereby  to  stride  to  empire,  did  they  re- 
vive as  a  genuine  party,  or  play  a  national  part  in  the  game 
of  politics  or  war. 

It  is  evident  that  the  ambitious  and  precocious  boy  had 
already  the  shrewdness  and  foresight  to  discover,  that  ad- 
herence to  the  traditional  policy  of  his  house,  and  adoption 
of  the  aristocratic,  or  conservative  Roman  party,  could,  at 
the  utmost,  promote  him  only  to  be  one  greater  among  many 
great,  could  only  elevate  him  to  the  highest  offices  under  the 
republic — while,  by  mounting  the  ladder,  constructed  from 
the  fragments  of  the  old  agrarian  and  new  Italian  factions, 
he  might  raise  himself  to  be,  what  he  aspired,  the  greatest, 
and  grasp  the  one  authority,  above  senate,  commonwealth, 
and  country. 

Sylla  entered  Rome,  as  we  have  seen  ;  massacres  and  pro- 
scriptions followed,  blood  flowed  like  water — and  boy  as  he 


440  CAIUS    JULIUS    CJESAR. 

was,  Caius  Caesar  attracted  the  deadly  glare  of  those  green 
eyes  of  Sylla,  which,  tiger-like,  for  the  most  part,  marked 
only  to  destroy.  He  received  orders,  as  the  condition  on 
which  he  might  live,  to  repudiate  Cornelia,  whose  paternity 
rendered  her  hated  at  once  and  suspected  by  the  vengeful 
dictator. 

But  the  boy^s  advancement  rested  on  his  adherence  to  the 
forbidden  wife  and  the  proscribed  party,  and  he  saw  it — other- 
wise he  had  sacrificed  both  to  the  star  of  his  ascendancy. 

As  it  was,  he  defied  what  few  defied  and  lived — the  dic- 
tator's wrath.  He  was  deprived  of  his  priesthood;  his  wife's 
dowry  was  confiscated  ;  a  price  was  set  on  his  head,  and  he 
escaped  only  by  hiding  himself  among  the  hills  and  woods  of 
the  Sabine  country,  and  on  one  occasion  by  bribing  the 
officer  of  a  detachment  which  actually  apprehended  him, 
while  suffering  from  an  attack  of  quartan  ague,  to  which  he 
was  ever  subject,  as  he  was  shifting  from  one  lurking-place 
to  another  in  the  gloom  of  a  starless  midnight. 

According  to  Suetonius,*  he  obtained  his  pardon  in  the 
end,  at  the  intercession  of  the  vestal  virgins,  of  Mamercus 
iEmilius,  and  of  Aurelius  Cotta,  his  kinsmen,  members  of  the 
highest  and  strictest  senatorial  party  ;  but,  as  Plutarch 
says,f  he  got  down  unobserved  to  the  sea  shore,  where  he 
found  a  ship  which  conveyed  him  in  safety  to  the  court  of 
Nicomedes,  king  of  Bithynia  ;  a  retreat  more  conducive  to 
his  personal  impunity  than  to  his  personal  reputation  ;  for 
reports,  too  abominable  to  be  written  down,  prevailed,  con- 
cerning his  intimacy  with  that  monarch,  which  he  never  out- 
lived in  all  his  greatness. 

It  is  of  this  time  that  the  story  goes,  concerning  the  reply 
of  Sylla  to  the  intercessors  for  the  life  of  Caesar,  which  la 
*  Sueton.  lib.  1.  1. 
t  Plut.  vit.  Cses.  1. 


HIS    FIRST    CAMPAIGN.  441 

related  both  by  Suetonius  and  Plutarch,  though  the  latter, 
to  color  his  version  of  the  event,  converts  it  into  a  positive 
refusal  to  pardon.  ''  For,"  he  said,  *'  he  could  perceive  many 
a  Marius  in  that  dissolute  boy." 

More  stress  has  been  laid  on  the  anecdote  than  it  is  really 
worth,  and  the  whole  story  has  been  decidedly  negatived  as 
impossible,  as  if  Sylla  were  incapable  of  discharging  a  per- 
son of  whom  he  entertained  such  an  opinion.  A  better  rea- 
son for  declining  it,  is  the  total  lack  of  grounds  whereon 
Sylla  should  have  formed  or  expressed  such  a  judgment.  If 
he  did  use  the  expression,  it  was  probably  a  half  sarcastic, 
half  genuine  sentiment,  elicited  from  him  by  the  young 
man's  obstinacy,  which  had  no  real  meaning,  and  was  for- 
gotten as  soon  as  uttered. 

It  is  not  a  matter  of  much  importance  either  way,  but  it 
is  more  probable  that  he  was  pardoned,  than  that  he  was  a 
mere  fugitive  from  justice,  since  we  find  him  in  the  employ- 
ment of  Minucius  Thermus,  who  was  sent  by  Sylla  to  the 
assistance  of  Nicomedes  against  Mithridates,  and  gaining 
under  his  command  the  honor  of  a  civic  crown  during  the 
blockade  of  Mitylene,  for  saving  the  life  of  a  Roman  citizen; 
things  not  likely  to  have  occurred  had  he  been  at  that  time 
under  proscription  and  the  dictator's  ban. 

In  the  following  year  he  served  part  of  a  campaign  in 
CiHcia  under  the  consul  Servilius  Isauricus,  but  speedily  re- 
signed and  returned  home,  for  the  death  of  Sylla  had  pro- 
duced a  change  in  affairs,  and  there  appeared  some  proba- 
bility that  the  anti-Roman  party  might  again  gain  the  as- 
cendant. ' 

Marcus  JEmilius  Lepidus,  a  man  of  mean  capacity  but 
profligate  ambition,*  had  been  elected  consul  by  the  rehcs  of 
the  Marian  party,  in  the  year  of  the  city  6^6,  B.  C.  18,  and 
*  Ferguson's  Roman  Rep.  III.  1. 
19* 


442  CAIUS    JULIUS    CESAR. 

had  re(ieived  Cisalpine  Gaul  as  his  province,  whence  he 
marched  with  his  army  upon  Kome,  intending  to  play  again 
the  game  of  Marius,  but  his  abilities  were  utterly  unequal  to 
his  aims,  and  he  was  entirely  defeated  in  the  Janiculum,  by 
his  colleague  Quintus  Lutatius  Catulus.  His  party  was  dis- 
persed, and  he  shortly  afterward  died  in  Sardinia,  broken- 
hearted. 

It  was  to  be  on  the  spot,  and  in  readiness  to  take  advan- 
tage of  any  favorable  opportunity,  that  Caesar  had  returned 
to  Italy,  but  his  keen  eye  soon  perceived  that  the  elements 
of  success  were  wanting  to  this  vain  and  weak  attempt,  and 
that  the  reconstituted  republic,  since  the  reforms  of  Sylla, 
stood  on  too  firm  a  base  to  be  shaken  from  without,  until  its 
foundations  should  be  sapped  insidiously  from  within. 

In  truth,  after  the  death  of  that  great  and  politic  usurper, 
the  commonwealth  was  restored  almost  to  the  condition  in 
which  it  stood  at  the  moment  when  Hannibal  was  driven 
from  Italy.  The  magistrates  were  elected  by  the  same  regu- 
lated assemblies  ;  the  senate,  long  before  shorn  of  all  exces- 
sive privileges,  or  powers  dangerous  to  their  countrymen,  pos- 
sessed the  same  authority  which  it  had  used  so  nobly  in 
the  Punic  wars  ;  the  tribunes,  stripped  of  the  enormous 
prerogatives  which  they  had  usurped,  constituting  them 
almost  omnipotent  for  good  or  for  evil,  were  restricted  to  the 
functions  for  which  they  were  created,  in  repressing  inconsi- 
derate legislation,  and  putting  their  veto  on  unconstitutional 
or  illegal  acts  of  the  executive.  But,  above  all,  the  trea- 
sonable wickedness  of  Marius  in  altering  the  formation  of 
the  legions,  admitting  into  them  proletarians,  aliens,  and 
freedmen,  was  in  some  considerable  degree  counteracted  by 
the  sound  pohcy  of  the  dictator  in  planting  the  veterans  of 
all  the  armies  as  military  colonies  in  the  towns,  boroughs, 
villages  and  districts  which  had  been  confiscated  from  the 


CONSPIRACY    OF   CATILINE.  443 

inhabitants,  dispossessed  in  consequence  of  their  participation 
in  the  Italian  rising  against  Rome.  By  this  act,  from  pen- 
niless desperadoes,  with  no  stake  in  the  well-being  of  the 
country,  ready  to  follow  the  first  lucky  leader  who  could 
promise  them  pay  and  plunder,  they  were  converted  into 
citizens  and  freeholders  ;  they  had  homes,  and  speedily  ac- 
quired family  ties  and  all  those  home  affections,  which  bind 
men  to  the  soil  beyond  loyalty  or  law  ;  and  though,  in  his 
account  of  the  Catilinarian  conspiracy,  Sallust,  who  was  a 
well-wisher  to  that  nefarious  plot,  if  not  directly  a  partizan, 
represents  those  conspirators  as  resting  their  hope  of  armed 
support  on  a  rising  of  the  veterans  of  Sylla  in  their 
favor,  no  such  occurrence  took  place,  nor  does  it  appear  that 
the  military  colonies  ever  forsook  their  allegiance  to  the  Re- 
public. At  least  it  was  not  they,  but  a  mixed  horde  of 
Gauls,  Ligurians,  Germans,  ruffians  and  runaways  from  all 
nations,  banded  under  the  desecrated  eagles  of  Caesar,  who 
struck  down  the  standard  of  the  republic  at  Pharsalia,  and 
extinguished  the  last  sparks  of  liberty  in  the  blood  of  Bru- 
tus at  Philippi. 

Of  all  these  facts  Caesar  was  far  too  subtle  not  to  be 
thoroughly  aware  ;  and  consequently,  although  earnestly  so- 
licited to  join  the  movement,  he  held  aloof,  and  saw  his 
associates  perish  by  the  sword  of  Catulus  or  the  axes  of  his 
lictors,  with  unmoved  philosophy. 

Nevertheless,  after  the  extinction  of  this  conspiracy,  he 
made  a  move,  in  attempting  to  procure  the  impeachment  of 
the  ex-consul  Cornelius  Dolabella,  which  proved  so  far  pre- 
mature, that,  on  failing,  he  found  it  prudent  to  withdraw  for 
a  while  into  private  life,  and  retire  to  the  island  of  Rhodes, 
where  he  assiduously  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  rhetoric 
and  oratory,  under  Apollonius  Molo,  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished masters  of  the  day.    On  his  way  thither,  occurred 


444  CAIUS   JULIUS    C^SAR. 

an  incident  worthy  of  notice,  as  showing  the  indomitable 
will  and  unflinching  determination  of  the  man,  even  in  his 
early  youth,  no  less  than  the  small  regard  he  paid  to  the 
authorities,  when  they  conflicted  with  his  pleasure. 

Being  taken  by  pirates  near  the  island  of  Pharmacusa,  he 
was  detained  by  them  for  forty  days,  though  treated  with 
all  honor,  until  he  should  pay  a  ransom  of  fifty  talents. 
When  he  had  succeeded  in  obtaining  this  sum,  he  was 
landed,  with  his  suite,  on  the  sea  shore,  and,  immediately 
raising  a  squadron,  and  equipping  it  at  his  own  expence, 
sailed  in  pursuit  of  his  recent  entertainers,  forced  them  to 
action,  sunk  or  took  all  their  vessels,  and,  having  constantly, 
while  in  their  power,  threatened  them  jocosely  that  he  would 
one  day  crucify  every  one  of  them,  kept  his  word  in  a  man- 
ner which  they  found  anything  but  jocose — for  so  soon  as  he 
had  them  all  in  chains,  he  landed  and  proceeded  to  Junius 
Silanus,  the  proconsul  of  Bithynia,  of  whom  he  sought  an 
order  to  execute  his  prisoners  ;  but  this  request  being  re- 
fused, as  he  was  in  no  authority,  nor  held  any  office  under 
the  government,  he  made  all  haste  back  to  the  place  where 
he  left  them,  and  before  any  instructions  to  the  contrary 
could  reach  him,  made  his  promise  good,  by  nailing  the 
whole  number  of  them  to  crosses,  along  the  sea-shore. 

Shortly  after  his  return  to  Rome,  he  was  elected  a  tribune 
of  the  soldiers,  and  in  that  capacity  exerted  himself  with  the 
greatest  success  in  procuring  the  restoration  to  the  tribunes 
of  the  people,  of  those  odious  and  aggressive  powers  of  which 
Sylla,  to  the  eminent  good  of  the  republic,  had  deprived 
them.  And  this  done,  by  their  aid  ever  ready  in  behalf  of 
the  mutinous  and  ill-disposed,  he  procured  the  recall,  by  the 
Plotian  law,  of  Lucius  Cinna,  his  brother-in-law,  and  the 
other  traitor  refugees,  who  had  fled  for  safety,  after  the  dis- 


POMPEIA    AND    CLODIUS.  445 

comfiture  of  Lepidus,  to  the  camp  of  Sertorius,  who  still 
held  out  in  Spain  for  the  Marian  faction. 

Succeeding  to  the  office  of  Qusestor,  he  made  himself  no- 
torious by  delivering  two  orations  in  honor,  the  one  of  his 
aunt  Julia,  the  widow  of  Caius  Marius,  and  the  other  of  his 
own  wife,  Cornelia,  the  daughter  of  Marius'  colleague,  Cinna; 
and  thereafter  had  the  courage  to  restore  the  statues  of 
Caius  Marius  conquering  Jugurtha,  and  leading  captive  the 
Teutons  and  Cimbri.  The  nobles  were  greatly  annoyed  at 
this  show  of  reckless  defiance  to  the  acts  of  the  senate  under 
Sylla's  rule;  but  the  mass  of  the  people  were  yet  more  intox- 
icated by  the  daring  of  the  deed,  and  by  the  gratification  of 
once  more  beholding  the  trophies  of  their  favorite  adorn- 
ing the  pubhc  places,  whence  they  had  so  long  been  ban- 
ished. 

As  quaestor,  it  does  not  appear  that  he  had  any  foreign 
jurisdiction,  or  any  opportunity  of  distinguishing  himself  ex- 
cept by  these  invasions  on  the  integrity  of  the  state  and 
influence  of  the  senate;  but  during  his  occupation  of  the  ma- 
gistracy he  married  Pompeia,  the  daughter  of  Quintus  Pom- 
peius,  and  grand-daughter  of  Lucius  Sylla,  whom  he  after- 
ward divorced,  on  suspicion  of  adultery  with  Publius 
Clodius,*  who  introduced  himself  into  his  house  in  female 
attire,  during  the  celebration  of  the  mysteries  of  the  Bona 
dea — a  sacrilege,  which  was  afterward  made  the  subject  of 
a  public  prosecution  before  the  senate. 

Up  to  this  time  he  had  led  a  life  the  most  licentious  and 
debauched  that  can  be  conceived  ;  and  so  profuse  was  he  of 
his  largesses  and  reckless  liberalities,  that  when  he  attained 
to  the  office  of  Curule  JEdile,  the  next  in  rotation  to  the 
qusestorship,  he  was  already  indebted  to  various  creditors  in 
the  vast  amount  of  thirteen  hundred  talents,  a  sum  equal  to 
*  Sueton.  1.  VI. 


446  CAIUS   JULIUS    CyESAR. 

above  three  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling,  or  a  million 
and  a  half  of  dollars  ;*  and  to  this  enormous  debt  he  added 
fresh  burdens,  by  the  magnificent  games,  pomps,  banquets 
and  processions,  which  he  exhibited — not  the  least  of  these 
being  a  combat  of  three  hundred  and  twenty  pairs  of  trained 
gladiators — during  his  tenure  of  that  office. 

It  would  appear,  that  in  the  year  before  he  was  appointed 
to  the  ^dileship,  the  Latin  colonies  were  again  in  a  state  of 
violent  agitation  on  the  old  question  of  obtaining  the  full 
Roman  franchise  ;  and  the  whole  revolutionary  faction  was 
busily  at  work,  Caesar  among  the  rest,  secretly  undermining 
the  foundations  of  the  commonwealth,  and  stimulating  them 
to  rise  in  overt  rebellion,  which  they  would  unquestionably 
have  done  had  not  the  consuls  kept  the  legions  in  hand, 
which  had  been  levied  for  the  Cihcian  war,  and  thereby 
frustrated  the  attempt. 

A  few  days,  certainly,  f  before  he  entered  upon  his 
aedileship,  the  gravest  suspicion  arose,  that  he  was  engaged 
in  a  conspiracy  with  Crassus,  the  richest  man  in  Rome,  of 
consular  dignity,  and  the  two  consuls  of  the  year,  Publius 
CorneUus  Sylla  and  Lucius  Autronius  Paetus — both  recently 
ejected  from  office  for  bribery — to  massacre  the  senate  in  the 
Campus  Martins,  on  a  given  signal ;  declare  Crassus  dictator, 
with  Caesar  for  his  master  of  the  horse ;  and  to  proclaim  the 
Italian  republic,  with  Corfinium,  instead  of  Rome,  for  its 
head.  From  fear,  or  that  his  heart  failed  him,  Crassus  was 
not  on  the  spot  when  the  appointed  time  arrived;  and  Caesar, 
in  consequence,  failed  to  give  the  signal  which  had  been 
agreed  on,  by  letting  his  toga  slip  from  his  shoulder.  The 
rich  man^s  hesitation,  caused  probably  by  his  apprehension 
that  his  property,  much  of  which  lay  in  city  tenements, 

*  Plutarch,  vit.  Caes.  Y. 
t  Suetonius,  1.  9. 


MURDER    OF    PISO.  441 

would  suffer  in  a  plot,  which  involved  conflagration  as  a  part 
of  the  design,  preserved  Rome. 

This  was  the  first  germ  of  the  more  celebrated  Catilinarian 
conspiracy,  which  matured  three  years  later,  and  was  sup- 
pressed in  the  consulship  of  Cicero  and  Antonius  ;  and  to 
both  these  the  key  is  the  elevation  of  the  Italian  confede- 
racy on  the  ruins  of  Rome.  To  their  non-perception  of  this 
fact,  it  is  to  be  attributed  that  many  able  and  well-informed 
historians  have  doubted  the  reality  of  any  such  conspiracy, 
involving  the  total  destruction  of  Rome  and  the  annihilation 
of  her  power,  by  the  hands  of  her  own  citizens,  as  a  thing 
absolutely  incredible,  owing  to  the  absence  of  motive.  But 
motive  is  not  absent,  when  it  is  considered  that  the  project 
embraced  the  organization  of  a  yet  vaster  and  more  power- 
ful republic,  even  the  whole  peninsula,  of  which  every  Italian 
should  be  a  freeman,  and  the  parricides  of  Rome  the  lords 
and  imperators. 

After  the  explosion  of  this  abominable  plot,*  another  ap- 
pears to  have  been  organized,  with  a  view  to  transferring 
the  seat  of  the  first  outbreak  to  Spain  ;  where,  Piso  going 
to  the  province  with  an  army,  as  propraetor,  should  rally  the 
old  Sertorian  and  Marian  party  upon  himself,  and  raise  the 
standard  of  rebellion,  which  would  be  seconded  by  a  revolu- 
tion in  the  city,  to  be  headed  by  Crassus  and  Caesar. 

This,  like  the  preceding  plot,  fell  through  ;  Piso  being 
murdered  on  the  route  to  his  province,  for  his  cruelty,  by 
some  Spanish  horsemen,  said  also  to  be  old  clients  still  in 
the  pay  of  Cneius  Pompeius,  afterward  surnamed  the  Great 
who  moved  alike  by  enmity  to  Crassus  and  regard  for  the 
constitution,  took  this  strong  method  of  ridding  the  one 
of  an  unscrupulous  tool,  and  the  other  of  an  inveterate 
enemy. 

*  Sallust  Bell.  Cat.  19. 


448  CAIUS    JULIUS    C^SAR. 

Frustrated  thus  of  any  occasion,  for  the  present,  of  gra- 
tifying his  lust  of  power — thirst  of  blood,  unlike  the  others, 
he  had  none  to  gratify,  for  he  was  a  good-tempered,  easy 
man  by  nature,  and  would  rather  have  preferred  not  to  shed 
blood  at  all,  provided  he  could  have  gained  his  ends  without 
it,  though  entirely  careless  what  oceans  should  flow  if  neces- 
sary to  achieve  those  ends — he  had  no  other  way  of  passing 
his  sedileship  than  in  sumptuously  beautifying  the  comitium, 
and  forum,  the  basilicas,  the  Appian  way,  and  the  capitol, 
to  the  burning  of  which,  he  had  but  a  few  days  before  been 
consenting,  by  porticoes  and  other  edifices  of  such  cost  as 
added  vastly  to  his  already  gigantic  encumbrances. 

His  next  step  was  a  bold  one — no  less  than  to  aspire  to 
the  office  of  Pontifex  Maximus,  the  most  honorable  and  re- 
verend dignity  in  the  gift  of  the  republic,  conferring  no 
power,  indeed,  or  privilege  on  its  holder,  but  investing  him 
with  such  sanctity,  and  so  elevating  his  personal  character, 
as  to  be  sought  after  only  by  the  most  considerable  per- 
sons, and  never  before  granted  to  any  but  men  of  probity 
and  weight. 

It  was  now  vacant  by  the  death  of  Quintus  Csecilius  Metel- 
his  Pius,  the  most  virtuous  and  generally  respected  citizen  of 
Rome,  and  was  the  subject  of  aspiration  to  two  candidates, 
worthy,  by  their  families  and  their  own  precedents,  of  that 
high  dignity.  These  were  Publius  Servilius  Yatea,  Isauricus, 
and  Quintus  Lutatius  Catulus ;  and  against  these,  having  no 
qualifications  to  show  except  a  fortune  and  a  character  broken 
by  licentiousness  and  riot  and  a  career  tainted  by  suspicions 
of  the  blackest  treason,  he  had  the  effrontery  to  offer  himself 
competitor.  • 

Unblushing  corruption  carried  the  day,  and  so  extraordi- 
nary, it  is  said,  was  the  extent  to  which  he  carried  his  bribe- 
ries, that  he  was  himself  staggered  by  the  amount  of  his  lia- 


k 


SECOND    CONSPIRACY.  449 

bilities  ;  and,  when  his  mother  kissed  him  and  wished  him 
good  speed,  as  he  left  his  house  on  the  morning  of  the  can- 
vass, replied,  "  I  shall  either  return  home  pontifix  Maximus, 
or  not  return  at  all."  He  did  return,  however;  for,  so  far  did 
effrontery  and  bribery  carry  it  above  age,  dignity,  desert, 
service  and  virtue,  that  he  actually  gained  more  votes  in  the 
particular  tribes  of  his  competitors  than  they  in  their  whole 
canvass. 

At  the  ensuing  elections,  which  were  in  the  six  hundred 
and  ninetieth  year  of  the  city,  B.  C.  64,  when  he  was 
thirty-six  years  old,  he  was  chosen  praetor  for  the  ensuing 
year,  that  wherein  the  conspiracy  of  Catiline  finally  came  to 
a  head,  and  was  suppressed.  There  is  not  a  shadow  of 
doubt,  that  both  Crassus  and  Caesar  were  deeply  compro- 
mised in  this  matter  ;  but  the  latter  had  probably  satis- 
fied himself  by  this  time,  that  the  Italian  element  in  this 
great  conspiracy  was  too  much  broken  and  dispirited  to  be 
of  any  practical  value;  that  the  true  old  plebeian  party  of 
the  Gracchi  did  not  care  to  move,  the  issues  being  entirely 
altered  since  their  struggles  ;  that  the  colonized  veterans 
were  looking  rather  to  the  domestic  comforts  of  their  newly- 
acquired  homes,  than  to  the  brewing  of  fresh  plots;  that  the 
only  persons  truly  to  be  depended  on,  were  a  small  knot  of 
desperate,  dangerous,  ruined  nobles,  capable  in  will  and 
wickedness  of  doing  anything,  but  incapable,  for  lack  of  men 
and  means,  of  success — in  a  word,  that  neither  the  time  nor 
the  persons,  for  dismantling  the  commonwealth,  had  arrived. 

His  sagacity,  doubtless,  kept  his  weaker-minded  confede- 
rate, Crassus,  as  superadded  to  his  fears  on  account  of  his 
property,  from  showing  his  hand  prematurely.  And  they 
both  remained  tranquil  and  apparently  undisturbed  among 
the  fierce  dissensions,  of  which,  had  there  appeared  a  proba- 


450  CAIUS   JULIUS    C^SAR. 

bility  that  they  could  succeed,  both  would  have  taken  quick 
advantage. 

It  must  have  required  rare  subtlety  to  play  that  game — to 
avoid  the  awakened  suspicions  of  the  senate,  with  Cicero 
and  Cato  at  their  head — to  avoid  the  jealousy  of  such  men 
as  Lentulus,  Cethegus,  Catiline,  who,  should  they  imagine 
themselves  deserted  or  betrayed  by  their  fellows,  were  cer- 
tain to  denounce  them,  if  for  the  mere  pleasure  of  involving 
them  in  a  common  ruin.  It  must  have  required  rare  auda- 
dacity. 

But  to  this  extraordinary  man,  neither  subtlety  nor  auda- 
city were  wanting,  and  the  game  played  itself  into  his  hands, 
where  the  cards  with  which  to  win  were  wanting. 

Cicero,  and  Cato,  and  probably  Cneius  Pompeius,  at  this 
time  antagonistic  to  Caesar,  undoubtedly  were  aware  of  the 
complicity  of  both  these  men,  but  probably  did  not  possess 
irrefragable  evidence  to  convict,  and,  if  they  did,  dared  not 
array  against  themselves,  in  addition  to  the  known  strength 
of  the  conspiracy,  the  unknown  powers,  bought  by  the 
wealth  of  Crassus,  and  won  by  the  address  of  Caesar,  which 
would  be  thrown  into  the  balance  against  Rome,  on  the  first 
attempt  to  implicate  them  in  the  charges. 

This  point  in  the  game  was  not,  one  may  be  sure,  lost 
upon  Caesar,  who  saw  that,  so  long  as  he  remained  impas- 
sive, he  had  nothing  to  fear  from  the  government,  and  that 
all  that  remained  to  parry  was  the  jealousies,  the  resent- 
ments, the  revenge  of  the  ruined  traitors. 

Nor,  however  deeply  one  may  detest  and  loathe  the  du- 
plicity and  treachery  of  this  false  and  recreant  noble,  false 
to  the  honors  of  his  house,  false  to  the  principles  of  his 
caste,  false  to  the  trust  of  his  country,  can  he  but  admire 
the  magnificent  effrontery,  the  calm,  sublime  audacity,  with 
which  Caesar  arose,  conscious  of  equal  guilt,  in  presence  of 


DANGER   FROM   THE    EQUITES.  451 

Ms  arraigned  confederates;  conscious  of  detected  crime,  in 
the  presence  of  the  indignant  judges,  and  delivered  an  ora- 
tion in  their  favor,  and  against  the  capital  sentence,  so 
closely  logical,  so  admirably  sophistical,  so  cogent  and  so 
eloquent,  that  it  changed  the  hearts  of  more  than  one  of  the 
assessors,  and  filled  the  souls  of  the  prisoners  with  renewed 
hope  of  life,  and  with  gratitude  for  him  who  had  risked  so 
much  to  save  them. 

He  did  risk  much  ;  for,  after  Cato  had  replied,  carrying 
conviction  on  every  word  he  uttered,  and  the  prisoners  were 
led  to  the  Tullianum,  and  the  death  by  the  hangman's  noose, 
such  was  the  indignation  raised  against  him,  that  the  eques- 
trian order,  who  had  rallied  strong  in  arms  about  their 
equestrian  consul,  drew  their  swords  on  him,  as  he  issued 
from  the  senate  house,  and  would  have  slain  him  there,  had 
not  Curio  cast  the  skirt  of  his  toga  over  him,  and  Cicero 
and  Cato  exerted  themselves  to  the  utmost  to  prevent  ano- 
ther act  of  violence,  which,  however  just  in  itself,  would 
but  have  added  another  brand  to  the  burning. 

And  this  is  the  man  who  died  ''The  Father  of  his 
country,"  and  dead,  was  worshipped  as  a  god  by  Romans. 

From  this  day  Caesar  renounced  conspiracies  ;  from  this 
day  he  had  no  confidants,  no  assistants  ;  ignorant  and  blind 
tools  only,  by  whom  to  work  out  his  own  inscrutable  will. 
And  again,  fortune  favored  him.  The  senate,  aware  how 
dangerous  he  was  at  home,  and  entirely  unsuspicious  of  his 
possessing  almost  unequalled  military  talents,  thought  they 
did  well  and  wisely  in  sending  him  far  off,  on  an  honorable 
mission,  to  take  the  government  of  a  remote,  wild,  half-con- 
quered province,  and  the  command  of  a  turbulent  and 
seditious  army.  So  they  gave  to  him,  as  propraetor,  the 
government  of  farther  Spain,  hoping,  it  is  like  enough,  that 
he  would  share  the  fate  of  Sertorius,  of  Piso,  and  of  so 


452  CATUS    JULIUS    C^SAR. 

many  other  officers,  who  in  these  infamous  times  perished 
by  the  hands  of  their  own  lawless  soldiers  or  mutinous  sub- 
alterns. 

His  debts  still  stood  in  his  way  ;  and  so  vast  had  they 
become,  and  so  hopeless  were  his  creditors  of  ever  being 
paid,  even  by  the  fruits  of  the  utmost  extortion  which  a  Ro- 
man praetor  could  apply  to  his  province,  that  they  served 
process  upon  him,  forbidding  him  to  quit  the  city.  Nor 
could  he  have  availed  himself  of  this  his  first  opportunity 
of  acquiring  either  renown  or  wealth,  had  not  Licinius 
Crassus  become  security  for  him  in  the  sum  of  eight  hun- 
dred and  thirty  talents,  or  about  one  million  of  dollars. 

It  is  possible  that  this  act  of  munificence  on  the  part  of 
Crassus,  who  was  ordinarily  esteemed  no  less  avaricious  than 
wealthy,  had  its  origin  in  gratitude  for  the  beneficial  influ- 
ence Caesar  had  exerted  on  him,  in  preventing  his  farther 
complication  in  the  conspiracy  of  Catiline.  It  is  more  pro- 
bable, that  he,  also,  desired  the  absence  of  his  brilliant,  ver- 
satile, and  dangerous  companion. 

In  the  thirty-eighth  year  of  his  age,  therefore,  he  set 
forth  to  that  strange  and  inexplicable  country,  which  has 
afforded  the  school  to  more  great  generals  of  other  countries 
than  any  other  portion  of  the  world,  while  it  has  produced 
few,  if  any,  in  the  first  class,  of  its  own — to  Spain,  the  then 
El  Dorado  of  the  western  continent,  to  whom  her  own 
gold  and  silver  mines  brought  the  same  misery  and  ruin, 
which  she  herself  for  the  like  treasures  wrought  on  the 
softer  savages  of  a  new  and  richer  Spain  beyond  the  utmost 
ocean. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  when,  at  this  period,  Caesar 
took  his  first  military  command,  and  set  forth  with  as  high 
ambition  as  ever  fired  a  mortal  breast,  with  as  stern  necessi- 
ties to  spur  him  to  exertion  as  ever  made  a  hero,  himself  an 


EARLY    CHARACTER.       *  453 

adventurer,  possessing  nothing  but  his  sword,  his  debts,  his 
iron  will,  and  his  consciousness  of  unrivalled  talents,  two 
others,  but  a  few  years  older  than  himself — one  destined  to 
be  his  rival  and  antagonist  through  life  unto  death,  who  had 
started,  but  a  distance  before  him,  in  the  same  race  for 
honors  and  distinction — had  reaped,  already,  such  harvests  of 
glory,  and  stood  so  high  in  the  esteem  and  admiration  of 
their  countrymen,  that  any  effort  to  equal,  much  more  to 
surpass  their  glory,  seemed  but  the  vanity  of  vanities. 

Lucius  Licinius  Lucullus,  and  Cneius  Pompeius  Strabo, 
already  named  the  Great,  had  both  served  as  consuls,  had 
both  commanded  armies,  won  great  battles,  and  acquired 
influence  and  honors,  while  Caesar  was  yet  known,  at  the 
best,  as  a  wild,  dissolute,  daring  youth,  of  talents  worthy 
better  things,  of  energetic  will  and  heaven-reaching  courage ; 
at  worst,  as  a  bad  citizen,  a  factious  magistrate,  in  short, 
all  but  a  traitor. 

Pompey,  but  six  years  older  than  himself,  had  commanded 
armies  and  set  batallia  in  the  field  before  he  had  changed 
the  boy^s  bulla  and  prsetexta  for  the  robes  of  manhood  ;  had 
filled  the  place  of  consul,  before  he  was  elected  to  his  first 
civic  office  ;  and  now,  when  he  was  setting  forth  on  his  first 
military  mission,  had  reduced  the  pirates  of  Cilicia  and  the 
Isles,  had  conquered  Mithridates,  overrun  Pontus,  Paphla- 
gonia,  Colchis,  Armenia,  Syria,  even  Judaea  ;  had  besieged 
and  stormed  Jerusalem,  had  entered  the  temple  of  the  Most 
High  God  ;  had  carried  the  eagles  of  Rome  in  unabated 
triumph,  from  the  Atlantic  coasts  of  Spain  and  the  bounda- 
ries of  Numidia,  to  the  shores  of  the  Euxine  and  the  vici- 
nity of  the  Caspian  sea,  to  the  mighty  waters  of  Euphrates, 
the  clear  rivulets  of  Damascus,  and  "  Siloa^s  brook  that 
flowed 

Hard  by  the  living  oracle  of  God." 


454  CAIUS   JULIUS    C^SAR. 

He  had  taken  a  thousand  fortresses  ;  reduced  nine  hundred 
cities.  Eight  hundred  ships  of  war,  two  millions  of  captives, 
and  twenty  thousand  talents,  borne  to  the  treasury,  were 
his  trophies  ;  kings  and  the  sons  of  kings  followed  his  cha- 
riot wheels,  in  troops  ;  and  such  a  triumph  as  he  carried  up 
the  sacred  way,  in  the  same  year  which  saw  Gains  Caesar  a 
poor  propraetor  in  the  farther  Spain,  Rome  had  not  beheld 
in  her  seven  centuries  of  glory. 

Yet  this  was  the  man,  to  surpass  and  conquer  whom  he 
had  girded  up  his  loins,  and  gone  forth  in  that  self-confident 
resolve  which  ensures,  if  it  is  not,  victory. 

His  purposes  thus  fully  determined,  he  took  his  way  to  his 
seat  of  government,  which  he  found  in  a  state  of  absolute 
tranquillity,  so  far  as  subjection  to  Rome  was  concerned, 
and  but  slightly  agitated  internally  by  the  feuds  and  forays 
which  are  the  constant  occupation  and  delight  of  all  the 
Celtic  races,  with  the  blood  of  whom  the  early  Spaniards 
would  appear  to  have  been  largely  tainted.  This  readily 
afforded  a  pretext  and  occasion  to  the  magistrate,  who 
entered  his  province  with  the  almost  avowed  object  of  gain- 
ing wealth  and  military  distinction  at  the  expense  of  the 
miserable  inhabitants,  who,  if  he  would  have  allowed  them, 
were  content  to  be  the  most  tranquil  and  obedient  of  subjects. 

It  is  on  his  march  to  this  his  first  government,  that  the 
circumstances  are  said  to  have  occurred,  which  gave  origin 
to  two  most  characteristic  anecdotes,  which,  if  not  actually 
true,  are  so  consonant  with  the  spirit  and  temper  of  the 
man,  that  they  should  not  be  passed  over — the  one,  that  in 
passing  through  a  small  and  miserable  village  among  the 
mo\intains,  he  exclaimed  :  ''  I  had  rather  be  first  in  that 
hamlet  *  than  second  in  Rome  f — the  other,  that  on  seeing 
a  statue  of  Alexander  the  Great  in  Cadiz,  he  shed  tears  at 
*  Pint.  vit.  Cses.  XI. 


HIS    FIRST    EXPLOIT.  455 

the  thought,  that  the  Macedouian  *  hero  had  conquered  a 
world,  done  his  work,  and  fallen  asleep  in  everlasting  glory, 
before  he  had  won  a  single  trophy. 

A  fault  he  was  soon  about  to  rectify  ;  for  scarcely  had  he 
reached  his  seat  of  government,  before  he  grasped  at  the 
pretext  given  him  by  the  prsedatory  excursions  of  a  tribe  of 
mountaineers,  who  inhabited  the  gorges  of  the  Mons  Her- 
minius,f  the  Yilluerca  or  Toledo  mountains,  lying  between 
the  Guadiana  and  the  Tagus,  and  whom  he  commanded  to 
abandon  their  hill  dwellings  and  betake  them  to  the  plain, 
as  if  to  put  a  stop  to  their  forays,  but  in  reality  to  force 
them  to  arms. 

To  any  one  acquainted  with  the  character  of  Highlanders, 
no  more  need  be  said.  The  infamous  scheme  was  successful ; 
the  mountaineers  sent  their  wives  and  families,  and  all  the 
most  precious  of  their  possessions,  beyond  the  Douro,  into 
the  northern  parts  of  Portugal,  and  made  a  strenuous  but 
ineffectual  resistance  to  the  robber  Romans.  The  science 
and  discipline  of  the  legions  easily  prevailed  ;  the  Herminii 
were  driven  from  point  to  point,  until  deserting  the  mainland, 
they  betook  themselves  to  certain  islands  on  the  coast, 
whither  they  fancied  that  Caesar,  having  no  squadron  at 
hand,  would  not  care  to  pursue  them.  But  they  little  knew 
with  whom  they  had  to  deal.  In  the  first  heat  of  blood  he 
caused  rafts  to  be  made,  and  embarked  a  detachment  on 
such  frail  support  to  storm  the  islands;  but  the  rafts  ground- 
ing on  a  reef  at  some  distance  from  the  rocks  on  which  were 
crowded  the  unhappy  barbarians,  with  deep  water  between ; 
the  legionaries  attempted  to  ford  or  swim  the  strait,  and, 
their  leader  being  carried  away  by  the  undertow  and  so 
drowned,  all  perished,  either  in  the  waves  or  by  the  missiles 

•  Sueton.  I,  YII, 

t  Dio  Cassius,  lib.  XXXYIl,  c.  52. 


456  CAIUS    JULIUS    C^SAR. 

of  the  Spaniards,  with  the  exception  of  one  Publius  Scaevius, 
who  having  lost  his  shield  and  received  many  wounds,  swam 
back  to  the  mainland,  and  so  escaped  with  his  life. 

On  the  following  day,  Caesar  sent  for  ships  to  Cadiz,  and 
passing  over  his  whole  army  into  the  island,  reduced  the 
mountaineers,  who  were  starving,  to  unconditional  surrender. 
Thence  he  navigated  all  the  seas  adjoining  the  western  coast 
of  Spain,  so  far  as  to  Brigantium,  the  modern  Corunna, 
where  the  unfortunate  natives,  never  having  seen  a  ship, 
were  so  terrified  at  their  approach,  with  the  white  foam 
curling  about  their  beaks  and  oar-blades  as  they  came  on 
with  all  sail  set,  that  they  were  overthrown,  and  their  town 
destroyed,  without  the  slightest  difficulty,  as  without  the 
smallest  provocation. 

This  cowardly,  savage,  and  intrinsically  piratical  action 
having  been  performed  by  a  man  whom  his  flatterers  have 
represented,  and  been  followed  by  most  historians  in  repre- 
senting, as  the  most  humane  and  kindest  hearted  of  men, 
one  constitutionally  averse  to  the  sight  of  cruelty  or  blood, 
was  followed  up,  through  his  whole  career,  by  similar  acts  of 
wanton  barbarity  and  spoliation,  wherever  it  suited  his  pe- 
cuniary or  political  exigencies  to  slaughter  a  few  hundred 
thousand  half-armed  barbarians,  in  order  to  give  the  Romans 
a  triumph  and  a  holiday,  or  to  plunder  a  few  hundred  towns, 
respecting  neither  public  nor  private  property,  in  order  to 
pay  his  debts,  or  propitiate  his  greedy  soldiery. 

In  the  present  instance,  he  aimed  at  four  different  ends 
by  this  butchery  of  unoffending  Roman  subjects  ;  for  Far- 
ther Spain  was,  at  this  time,  a  regularly  constituted  pro- 
vince of  the  Republic,  and  its  inhabitants  were  as  much  enti- 
tled to  his  protection  in  his  quality  of  propraetor  and  governor, 
as  were  those  of  Latium,  or  the  Sabine  country  to  that  of 
the  senate  and  consuls.     Those  ends  were  the  payment  of 


DISPENSATION    TO    CANVASS.  457 

his  debts,  the  gratification  of  his  legionaries  by  vast  larges- 
ses, a  triumph,  and  the  consulship.  Of  these  ends  he  gained 
three,  for  the  taxes  which  he  imposed  on  the  wretched  pro- 
vincials were  so  exorbitant,  that  while  he  indulged  the 
soldiery,  almost  beyond  their  desires,  he  enriched  himself  to 
such  -a  degree,  that  on  his  return  to  Rome  he  found  means 
to  pay  off  a  considerable  portion  of  his  debts,  and  to  estab- 
lish such  a  credit  as  lasted  him  until  he  had  secured  himself 
in  a  position  which  supplied  all  the  ends  of  wealth  without 
either  moneys  or  credit;  and,  though  he  missed  the  triumph, 
obtained  the  grand  object  of  his  ambition,  the  consulship. 

His  return  was  no  less  illegal  and  unconstitutioual,  than 
had  been  all  his  proceedings  during  his  sojourn;  for,  neither 
waiting  to  be  recalled  himself,  nor  to  hear  that  his  successor 
was  appointed,  he  hurried  with  indecent  haste  to  Rome, 
and,  remaining,  according  to  custom,  without  the  gates,  as 
retaining  his  imperium  and  the  standards  and  other  insignia  of 
his  military  rank,  sought  permission  of  the  senate  to  enter 
the  walls  and  canvass  for  the  consulship  as  a  private  person, 
while  soliciting  a  triumph  at  the  same  moment  as  proprsetor. 

The  nobility,  at  the  head  of  whom  were  Cicero  and  Cato, 
supported  or  impeded — according  as  one  may  view  it — by 
the  exalted  name,  extended  popularity,  honorable  principles, 
but  vacillating,  unstable  temper  of  the  vain  and  mediocre 
Pompey,  were  now  fully  aroused  to  the  real  nature  of  the 
new  candidate's  views,  purposes,  and  character.  They  knew 
him  the  vigorous,  though  uncommitted  ally,  comforter  and 
suborner  of  all  dangerous  plotters  against  Rome — they 
knew  him  the  bitterest  maligner  of  the  aristocracy,  and  the 
loudest  inveigher  against  the  corruptions  and  crimes,  in 
which  he  himself,  one  of  their  number,  far  surpassed  the 
most  guilty  of  his  order.  They  knew  him  the  fautor,  flat- 
terer, pandar  of  the  populace,  the  cold-blooded  agitator  of 
20 


458  CAIUS    JULIUS    CESAR. 

the  democratic  whirlwind,  on  which  he  hoped  to  ride  to  sub- 
lime dominion.  But  they  understood  not  at  all,  either  the 
depth  and  force  of  his  wonderful  genius,  or  the  unity  of 
purpose  with  which  he  persisted  ever  to  his  one  object. 

A  triumph  was  the  grand  aim  of  the  Roman  generaFs 
ambition,  before  which  all  other  honors  paled  their  ineffec- 
tual light ;  it  was  the  end  for  which  men  sought  praetorships, 
provinces,  consulships,  command  of  armies  ;  for  which  they 
"  shunned  delights  and  lived  laborious  days  ;"  it  was  the  one 
thing  which  Juvenal  himself  admits  to  be  next  to  the  beati- 
tude of  the  gods,  to  be  seen — 

curribus  altis 
Extantem,  et  medio  sublimem  in  pulvere  circi 
In  tunica  Jovis,  et  pictae  Sarrana  ferentein 
Ex  humeris  aulaea  togse,  magnaeque  coronsa 
Tantum  orbem,  quanto  cervix  non  suflQcit  ulla  f 

It  never  occurred  to  one  of  them,  therefore,  that  the  pale, 
prematurely  aged,  ague-stricken  debauchee,  who  had  dis- 
played so  fitful  and  ill-regulated  an  ambition,  would  scorn- 
fully turn  aside  from  the  fruition  of  this  greatest  of  Koman 
splendors,  to  embrace  the  mere  chance  of  attaining  a  consul- 
ship, which  most  men  regarded  but  as  the  first  happy  step 
by  which  to  climb  to  the  last,  highest  point — the  triumph. 

Therefore,  after  debating  on  his  petition,  whOe  they  held 
out  to  him  fair  hope  that  his  claims  to  the  triumph  would  be 
favorably  considered,  and  in  fact  gave  him  secretly  to  under- 
stand that  it  would  follow  the  comitia,  they  refused  him  per- 
mission to  enter  the  city,  in  order  to  canvass  for  the  consul- 
ship ;  since,  they  said,  it  was  contrary  to  all  precedent, 
and,  if  granted,  would  form  a  most  dangerous  example,  that 
an  officer,  while  in  command  of  an  army,  having  his 
banQQrs  displayed  and  his  troops  mustered  before  the  gates, 


RESIGNS    III3    COMMAND.  '  459 

should  enter  the  city  in  military  array  on  a  civic  errand. 
Alas  !  the  precedent  had  been  set,  and  the  example  too  well 
followed,  within  the  last  half  century.  Not  only  had  gene- 
rals entered  the  gates  in  their  garb  of  war,  but  their  armies 
had  followed  them  with  sword  and  fire-brand;  and  banners, 
more  fatal  than  those  of  Hannibal  to  the  life  of  Rome,  had 
been  seen  pitched,  where  he  had  vainly  sworn  to  pitch  his 
own,  in  the  midst  of  the  Suburra.* 

So  little  did  even  Cato  yet  know  Caesar,  that  he  supposed 
''  this  weak  invention  of  the  enemy"  w^ould  suffice  to  detain 
him,  at  least  that  year,  from  the  office,  they  so  much  dreaded 
his  attaining. 

What  then  must  have  been  their  astonishment  and  dis- 
may, when  on  the  day  previous  to  the  elections,  they  saw 
him  enter  the  gates,  having  laid  aside  the  sword,  the  sagum 
and  the  crested  casque,  having  sacrificed  all  aspirations 
after  the  tunic  of  Jove  and  the  triumphal  laurels,  clad  in  the 
whitened  toga  of  the  candidate,  and  soliciting,  as  a  citizen, 
the  votes  of  his  fellow-citizens  for  the  first  office  in  their 
gift,  the  chief-magistracy  of  the  commonwealth. 

What  to  others  would  have  been  the  end,  to  him  was  the 
beginning.  A  consulship — a  province — a  war  I  Out  of  a 
war,  armies,  armies  of  his  own  creation,  instruments  of  his 
own  forging,  weapons  for  his  own  purposes — conquests — 
Rome — the  World !  Such  were  the  visions  that  already  filled 
his  soul — such  the  stakes  for  which  he  played  in  that  can- 
vass, losing  the  trump,  to  win,  literally,  with  the  King. 

If  the  senate  were  alarmed  when  they  discovered  how 
their  wretched  stratagem  had  resulted,  and  saw  that  their 
dreaded  enemy  had  boldly  taken  the  initiative,  what  must 
have  been  their  consternation  and  unmixed  confusion,  when 

*  Actum,  inquit,  nihil  est  nisi  Pano  millte  portas 
Frangimus   et  media  vexillum  pono  Suburra.— Juv.  Sat.  X. 


460  CAIUS   JULIUS    C^SAR. 

they  learned  that  the  plausible,  sweet-tongued,  pliant,  cour- 
teous demagogue  had  won  away  from  them  their  surest  and 
most  trusted  champion,  the  pillar  of  the  aristocracy,  the 
column  of  the  constitution,  the  "  hominem  severum  et  castum 
et  integrum  et  gravem,"  the  very  converse  of  the  licentious, 
dazzling,  daring  spendthrift,  with  whom  he  was  now  con- 
nected by  the  closest  ties  o^  personal  friendship,  was  soon  to 
be  connected  by  the  closest  ties  of  consanguinity. 

Crassus  and  Pompeius,  the  wealthiest  man  and  the  most 
honored  man  in  Rome,  had  hitherto  been  at  variance,  favor- 
ing different  parties,  and  jealous  each  of  the  other's  advance- 
ment. To  these,  now  united  by  his  specious  artifice,  was 
added  the  ablest  man,  not  in  Rome  only,  but,  at  that  day,  in 
the  world.  The  union  of  the  three  was  irresistible  as  against 
Rome,  and  so  the  ablest  of  the  senators  felt  and  foresaw  it. 
The  union  was  cemented  by  the  marriage  of  Pompey,  who 
had  lost  his  first  wife  JEmilia,  to  Julia,  Caesar's  daughter, 
grand-daughter  of  Cornelius  Cinna.  This  was  the  first  tri- 
umvirate. So  the  lampooners  and  wits  of  Rome  named  the 
cabal  with  laughter;  as  if  they  had  been,  indeed,  three  tri- 
umvirs, appointed  to  lead  out  colonies,  or  make  partition  of 
the  conquered  domains  of  the  republic. 

But  the  partition,  which  they  did  make,  was  of  the  repub- 
lic itself ;  and  it  was  with  tears,  not  laughter,  that  the  city 
marked  the  progress,  the  dissolution  of  that  first  trium- 
virate. 

Caesar  had  played  high,  but  won  more  high  ;  his  praetor- 
ship  was  bought  by  a  debt  of  a  million  and  a  half  of  dollars 
— the  consulship  cost  him  less,  his  daughter's  hand.  History 
leaves  us  to  conjecture,  whether  that  was  a  sacrifice.  In  one 
thing,  Julia  was  happy,  she  died  childless,  before  her  father 
wept  Egyptian  tears  over  the  headless  trunk  of  him  whom 
he  on  that  day  called  son. 


THE   TRIPLE   ALLIANCE.  461 

It  was  in  the  year  of  Rome  695,  and  the  fifty-ninth 
before  the  Christian  era,  that  Caius  Julius  Caesar  obtained 
the  consulship,  the  prize  for  which  he  had  been  so  many 
years  contending  through  every  species  of  intrigue,  indirec- 
tion and  infamy.  The  means  by  which  he  obtained  it,  the 
transference  of  his  beautiful  daughter,  Julia,  from  Servilius 
Caepio,  to  whom  she  had  been  promised  as  a  bribe,  and  whose 
adherence  against  Bibulus  the  expectation  of  her  hand  had 
purchased,  to  Pompey,  were  not  more  creditable  than  the  use 
which  he  made  of  the  office  when  gained,  or  the  other  ma- 
trimonial arrangements  by  which  this  compact  of  sedition 
was  ratified. 

Servilius  was  to  be  recompensed  for  the  loss  of  Julia  by 
gaining  Pompey^s  instead  of  Caesar's  daughter — hearts  were 
things  of  no  more  consideration  then,  than  under  the  ancient 
regime  of  France — and  Caesar  himself,  doubly  widowed,  once 
by  death,  once  by  divorce,  espoused  the  daughter  of  Calpur- 
nius  Piso,  consul  with  Gabinius,  both  tools  of  Pompey,  for 
the  ensuing  year,  and  so  bought  their  sufi'rages. 

This  triple  alliance  it  was,  which  gave  rise  to  Cato's 
famous  expression,  "  that  it  was  intolerable  that  provinces, 
armies  and  governments  should  be  bartered  for  women,  and 
that  the  empire  itself  should  be  offered  as  a  bribe  for  their 
prostitution"* — but  the  saying  injured  Caesar  nothing.  For 
during  his  consulship  he  used  his  power  so  adroitly  in  conci- 
liating all  classes — the  lower  orders  by  enacting  a  new  agra- 
rian law,  which  provided  lands  in  Campania  for  twenty 
thousand  indigent  citizens,  without  invading  private  pro- 
perty or  infringing  on  vested  rights,  since  the  territories  distri- 
buted were  either  wastes  or  public  property — the  equestrian 
class,  whom  he  had  offended  in  the  matter  of  Catiline,  by  a 
remission  of  the  third  part  of  their  rents  as  revenue  farmers 
♦  Plut.  vit.  Cses.  XIV. 


462  CAIUS   JULIUS    CESAR. 

in  Asia — and  the  better  class  of  citizens  by  sundry  salutary 
and  equitable  laws,  which  he  procured  to  be  passed,  in 
regard  to  the  method  of  ballotting  in  tho  public  elections,  to 
the  challenge  of  judges  and  jurors,  to  the  increasing  the 
penalties  of  persons  convicted  of  treason,  and  to  the  placing 
farther  restrictions  on  governors  of  provinces,  so  as  to  pre- 
vent extortion,  facilitate  justice,  and  compel  restitution — 
that  he  procured  from  the  popular  assembly  all  that  he  most 
ardently  desired. 

This  was  a  province  for  a  term  of  years  * — amounting,  in 
fact,  almost  to  a  tenure  of  it  in  perpetuity — with  the  com- 
mand of  an  army,  in  the  very  jaws  of  the  republic,  overlooking 
the  walls  of  Rome  from  the  summits  of  the  upper  Appen- 
nines,  commanding  the  city  and  overawing  the  senate,  and 
assuring  him  of  the  future  means,  whenever  the  pear  should 
be  ripe,  of  conquering  the  one  and  subverting  the  other. 

There  was  abroad  at  this  time  a  rumor,  that  the  Helvetii, 
the  fierce  mountaineers  of  the  Alpine  valleys  of  Switzer- 
land, a  people  second  only  in  valor,  fierce  barbarism,  and 
the  terrors  they  inspired,  to  the  Teutons  and  Cimbri,  whose 
destruction  had  given  immortality  to  Marius,  were  moving 
among  their  misty  pasturages  in  the  Grisons,  and  in  the 
dark  pinewoods  of  the  forest  cantons,  and  preparing  to 
emigrate  with  the  whole  population  of  four  cantons  into  the 
Roman  province  of  Gaul,  or  the  countries  of  the  Allobroges 
and  Sequani,  immediately  adjoining  it. 

On  this  pretext,  for  nothing  so  surely  excited  alarm  and 
induced  extraordinary  measures  at  Rome,  as  tidings  of  a 
Gallic  tumult,  at  Caesar's  instigation  a  motion  was  made  by 
the  tribune  Yatinius  that  the  people  should  set  aside  the 
Serapronian  f  laws  of  Caius  Gracchus  for  the  regulation  of 

*  Sueton.  I.  22. 

t  Ferguson's  Rora.  Repub.  II.-III, 


DICTUM    OF    CATO.  463 

the  provinces — by  which  the  appointment  of  all  officers  was 
left  to  the  senate  alone,  and  was  to  be  made  annually  before 
the  election  of  the  consuls — and  that  Cj^sar  should  be  ap- 
pointed to  the  provinces  of  Cisalpine  Gaul  and  Illyria,  for  a 
term  of  five  years,  with  an  army  of  three  legions.  The  sen- 
atorial party  was  at  first  greatly  alarmed  at  this  arbitrary 
stretch  of  power,  and  would  fain  have  opposed  it  ;  but, 
seeing  that  it  was  useless  to  attempt  to  stem  the  tide,  appre- 
hending that  farther  powers  would  be  granted  to  him  by  the 
populace,  and  either  vainly  hoping  to  involve  him  in  foreign 
wars  and  conquests,  and  so  keep  him  at  a  distance,  or  yet 
more  vainly  thinking  to  conciliate  him  to  their  party,  ulti- 
mately increased  the  popular  grant,  by  adding  Gallia  Co- 
mata,  the  barbarous,  unshorn.  Transalpine  Gaul,  to  his  pro- 
vince, and  another  legion  to  his  army. 

When  Cato  heard  these  tidings,  he  remarked  that  the 
^'  Senate  had  elected  their  king,  and  planted  him  with  his 
body-guard  in  the  capitol,"*  and  it  cannot  be  doubted  that 
he  spoke  truly,  and  that  Caesar — but  probably  Caesar  alone, 
for  he  had  no  confidants,  but  only  instruments  in  his  designs 
— so  regarded  it. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  it  had  been  the  invariable, 
traditional  policy  of  Rome,  never  to  keep  an  armed  force  on 
foot,  even  of  a  hundred  men,  in  time  of  peace,  within  the 
bounds  of  the  republic — not  a  soldier  could  enter  the  gates 
as  a  soldier ;  and  though  their  civic  magistrates  were,  ex- 
officio,  their  military  leaders  likewise,  the  double  functions 
were  so  arranged,  that  when  one  commenced  the  other 
ceased.  No  sooner  had  the  consul  donned  the  sagum  and 
carried  his  imperium  beyond  the  gates  and  his  fasces  to  the  ' 
head  of  the  legions,  than  he  ceased  in  all  respects  to  be  a 
civil  magistrate,  nor  could  he  reenter  the  walls,  even  to  visit 
*  Plut.  vit.  Catonis,  XXXIII. 


464  CAIUS    JULIUS    C/E3AR. 

his  family  or  to  address  the  senate,  until  he  had  resumed  the 
toga  and  abdicated  his  military  command. 

The  two  nearest  provinces,  both  of  which  involved  the 
command  of  a  standing  army,  were  Cisalpine  Gaul — that  is  to 
say,  all  the  country  from  Lucca,  the  northern  Appenines, 
and  the  little  river  Rubicon,  now  Fiumiciuo,  to  the  Alps — and 
Sicily.  The  former  was  within  easy  striking  distance,  not 
exceeding  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles,  of  the  capitol 
itself;  while  the  second  lay  at  the  extreme  end  of  the 
whole  peninsula,  and  was  farther  separated  by  the  channel 
of  Messina,  narrow,  it  is  true,  and  easy  of  transport,  btit 
still  not  to  be  traversed  without  a  fleet. 

The  state,  it  must  also  be  observe'd,  had  not  even  that  in- 
direct and  constitutional  force  of  household  troops,  burgher 
guards,  or  even  organized  police,  whereon  to  rely  on  occa- 
sion of  foreign  invasion  or  domesitic  dissension  ;  and  this 
fact  must  have  often  struck  every  intelligent  reader,  on 
observing,  that  on  the  occurrence  of  the  most  dangerous  se- 
ditions and  tumults,  the  senate,  or  the  consuls,  armed  by 
them  with  dictatorial  power,  had  no  means  of  putting  down 
disturbance  and  reestablishing  order,  but  by  the  arming  of 
volunteers,  the  equestrian  class  and  the  younger  senators,  for 
the  protection  of  the  state. 

Italy,  it  is  true,  was  the  mother  and  nurse  of  the  legions, 
but  since  war  had  been  long  banished  from  her  shores,  she 
was  no  longer  a  school  for  arms,  or  an  exercise  ground  for 
the  formation  of  soldiers.  In  the  early  ages  of  the  repub- 
lic, before  the  men  were  paid,  when  the  whole  army  was  in 
fact  the  whole  body  of  the  landholders,  and  they  a  feudal 
agricultural  militia,  every  citizen  was  a  soldier,  and  the  term 
of  the  enlistment  was  the  duration  of  the  campaign  ;  but  as 
military  science  advanced,  and  discipline,  skill,  and  the  habit 
of  acting  together,  were  found  entirely  to  supersede  bravery, 


SERVICE    OF    THE    LEGIONS.  465 

strength,  and  patriotism,   soldiership  became  a  profession, 
soldiers  a  class,  and  service  regular. 

Legions  were  raised  for  terms  of  years — we  jBnd  many 
mentioned  in  the  later  times  of  Rome  who  had  served  ten 
years  and  upward  in  succession  ;  the  legions,  disgraced  at 
Cannae  in  216  B.  C.  were  the  same  which  under  Scipio  con- 
quered at  Zama,  after  a  lapse  of  fourteen  years  ;  and  the 
eleventh  legion  in  Caesar's  Gallic  campaigns  was  put  on 
active  duty,  out  of  the  regular  routine  of  service,  because  it 
was  considered  yet  inferior  in  discipline,  though  it  had  been 
for  eight  years  constantly  in  the  field  before  an  enemy. 

Macedonia,  Numidia,  Spain  and  Gaul  had  been  for  many 
years  past  the  school  both  for  soldiers  and  officers  ;  and  the 
consequence  of  these  changes  in  the  art  of  war,  as  well  as 
of  the  recent  alteration  in  the  constitution  of  the  legions,  by 
which  the  camp  was  made  the  home  and  country  of  the  pro- 
letarian or  barbarian  soldier,  was  to  bring  about  a  state  of 
things  similar  to  that  existing  in  modern  Europe  ;  where 
one  regiment  of  trained  soldiers  is  equal  to  five  thousand 
undrilled  clowns,  and  where  a  country,  however  populous  or 
however  brave  its  inhabitants  by  nature,  if  it  have  no  regu- 
lar disciplined  troops,  is  delivered  over,  literally  bound  hand 
and  foot,  to  the  first  invader  who  passes  its  frontier  with  an 
army  of  twenty  thousand  veterans. 

The  difference  was  no  smaller  between  the  legionary  and 
the  ordinary  citizen  of  Rome  ;  and  the  officer  commanding 
half  a  dozen  legions,  perfect  in  the  practice  of  war,  and  de- 
voted to  his  person,  within  a  hundred  or  two  miles  of  the 
gates,  was  as  much  master  of  Rome  as  if  she  had  named  him 
her  king. 

For  some  time  after  the  appointment  of  Caesar  to  this  ex- 
traordinary command,  though  he  had  quitted  Rome,  raised 
his  forces,  and  thus  disqualified  himself  from  taking  any 
20* 


466  CAIUS    JULIUS    CESAR. 

share  in  civil  affairs,  he  yet  tarried  in  the  suburbs  to  observe 
the  proceedings  instituted  against  Cicero  by  the  tribune  Clo- 
dius,  to  which  both  he  and  Pompey  were  privy,  and  which 
terminated  in  the  exile  of  that  consistent  patriot  and  virtu- 
ous citizen. 

In  the  opening,  however,  of  the  year  58,  B.  C,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  his  province,  where  he  immediately  found  that  the 
report,  concerning  the  danger  from  the  Helvetii,  was  by  no 
means  exaggerated,  and  that  the  swarms  of  those  bold  and 
hardy  barbarians  were  already  in  motion. 

And  here,  in  fact,  commences  that  long  series  of  splendid 
campaigns,  of  irresistible  progresses  in  the  teeth  of  almost 
insuperable  difficulties,  of  enterprises  which  would  have 
been  pronounced  absurd,  had  not  success  proved  their  sound- 
ness, of  conquests  won  by  deluges  of  innocent  and  unneces- 
sary blood,  of  victorious  wars  uncheckered  by  a  single  defeat, 
which  carried  him  to  the  summit  of  his  aspirations,  a  throne, 
and  thence,  as  a  consequence,  to  a  bloody  and  unhonored 
grave. 

''  During  these  nine  years,"*  says  Suetonius, "  these  for  the 
most  part  were  his  actions.  He  reduced  all  Gallia  within 
the  Alps  and  Pyrenees,  the  Cevennes,  the  Rhine,  and  the 
Rhone,  allied  and  friendly  nations  alone  excepted,  a  circum- 
ference of  twice  three  hundred  miles,  into  the  form  of  a 
Roman  province,  and  exacted  from  it,  annually,  in  the  form 
of  a  tribute,  four  hundred  millions  of  Roman  money. 
Having  attacked  the  Germans  who  dwell  east  of  the  Rhine, 
by  means  of  a  bridge,  the  first  Roman  who  crossed  that 
river,  he  inflicted  on  them  terrible  defeats.  He  invaded  the 
Britons,  a  people  previously  unknown,  and  having  overcome 
them,  received  moneys  and  hostages  at  their  hands.  In  the 
course  of  these  signal  successes  he  incurred  but  three  losses: 
*  Sueton.   1.  XXY. 


HIS    UBIQUITY.  46 1 

the  destruction  of  his  fleet  by  a  storm  on  the  coasts  of  Bri- 
tain; the  defeat  of  a  legion  entirely  cut  off  at  Gergovia,  in 
Gaul  ;  and  the  loss  in  Germany  of  his  lieutenants,  Aurun- 
euleius  and  Titurius,  who  were  drawn  into  an  ambush,  sur- 
rounded and  put  to  the  sword."* 

In  a  sketch  of  the  nature  of  the  present  work,  it  is  of 
course  impossible  to  give  more  than  a  synopsis  of  these  bril- 
liant and  masterly  campaigns  ;  for  to  follow  every  incident, 
and  describe  in  detail  every  battle,  siege,  march,  and  opera- 
tion of  each — so  full  are  they  of  incidents — would  require  a 
history  in  itself,  as  is  sufficiently  evident  from  the  fact  that 
his  own  commentaries  occupy,  in  themselves  alone,  five  hun- 
dred pages.  Nor  indeed  do  they,  in  my  opinion,  merit  such 
a  scrutiny  ;  for,  as  I  view  it,  Caesar^s  great  merit,  as  a  gene- 
ral, lies  in  the  comprehensiveness,  the  vastness,  the  audacity 
of  his  gigantic  schemes,  the  irresistible  energy  and  impetus 
of  his  execution,  and  the  never-failing  success,  which  crowned 
his  every  enterprise — not  in  the  detail  or  manner  of  his  ope- 
rations. 

Nothing  deterred  him,  nothing  caused  him  to  hesitate,  no- 
thing stopped  him,  when  he  was  once  resolved.  Distance 
and  time  seemed  to  be  annihilated  by  the  gigantic  strides 
with  which  he  scaled  mountains,  bridged  unfathomed  rivers, 
traversed  unexplored  forests,  pathless  morasses,  stormy 
oceans.  The  deepest  snows  of  the  most  horrid  winters,  the 
scorching  heat  of  the  most  inclement  summers,  detracted  no- 
thing from  the  certainty,  the  celerity  of  his  operations.  We 
find  him  in  a  single  campaign  traversing  and  re-traversing 
the  length  and  breadth  of  Gaul  ;  annihilating  German 
hordes  in  the  marshy  woodlands  and  aguish  morasses  of  the 
Scheldt  and  Waal  ;  thunderstriking  the  rebeUious  tribes  of 
Brittanny  and  the  Norman  shores  ;  desolating  the  rich  val- 
*  Suetonius,  1.  XXY. 


468  CAIUS   JULIUS    CiESAR. 

leys  of  Auvergne  and  Languedoc,  and  hunting  the  painted 
Britons  to  their  fastnesses  beyond  the  silver  winding  Thames, 
amid  the  forests  of  Kent  and  the  fens  of  Cambridgeshire 
and  Ely.  Nothing  so  appalled  his  enemies,  nothing  so 
roused  his  soldiers  to  a  belief  that  he  arid  they  were  invin- 
cible, as  this  apparent  ubiquity.  No  sooner  did  a  savage 
tribe  revolt  from  his  hardly  endured  dominion,  among  Druid- 
haunted  oaks  or  blasted  heaths,  unknown  and  almost  inacces- 
sible, than,  as  if  the  birds  of  the  air  or  the  viewless  winds 
had  carried  him  the  tidings  of  their  half-formed  insurrection, 
the  Roman  and  his  cohorts  were  upon  them.  No  sooner 
was  a  legion  hemmed  in  and  beset  in  some  isolated  forest- 
girdled  camp,  hopeless  of  relief,  and  miles  away  from  Caesar 
and  his  unexpected  succors,  than  his  trumpets  woke  the 
echoes  of  the  wilderness,  and  the  leaguer  was  raised  almost 
as  soon  as  commenced,  and  the  besiegers  scattered,  as  if  by 
lightning. 

Never,  except  the  greatest  of  all  soldiers,  did  any  leader 
so  utterly  set  at  nought  all  rules,  all  maxims,  all  formulae ;  so 
thoroughly  overcome  all  obstacles  of  nature,  climate,  ground, 
space,  and  time.  With  him  to  will  was  to  execute  ;  to  un- 
dertake was  to  succeed. 

Means  appeared  to  make  themselves  to  bis  hands,  so  inex- 
haustible were  his  resources.  In  his  campaigns  he  almost 
realized  the  reply  of  the  French  minister  to  his  unhappy 
mistress  ;  "If  it  be  difficult,  it  shall  be  done  ;  if  impossible, 
it  is  done  already."  No  idea  of  failure  ever  seems  to  %ave 
entered  his  mind — no  enormity  of  carnage,  no  extremity  of 
human  misery,  to  have  formed  an  item  in  his  calculations. 

To  succeed,  if  success  could  be  had  only  by  extermination ; 
to  succeed  by  fraud,  by  treachery,  by  slaughter  ;  to  succeed 
in  the  despite  of  honor,  honesty,  religion,  mercy,  all  bonds, 


HIS    CLEMENCY.  469 

human  or  divine  ;  only  to  succeed  was  his  rule  in  policy  and 
in  warfare. 

*'  Think  not,"  said  Curio,  in  after  days  to  Cicero,  "  that 
his  not  being  cruel  is  a  consequence  of  will  or  disposition. 
He  is  clement  only  because  he  believes  clemency  to  be  popu- 
lar; let  him  once  lose  the  desire  to  court  the  popular  favor, 
he  shall  be  as  cruel  as  the  bloodiest."* 

Two  millions  of  men  were  slaughtered  in  battle,  massacred 
in  their  sacked  villages,  butchered  as  gladiators,  after  being 
made  prisoners,  in  the  arena ;  whole  detachments  were 
slaughtered  in  cold  blood,  after  surrender  ;  whole  tribes 
were  surrounded  and  put  to  the  sword,  unsuspicious, 
during  the  existence  of  undenounced  armistices  ;  the  en- 
tire population  of  a  large  f  city,  which  surrendered  at  dis- 
cretion, were  maimed  by  the  amputation  of  their  right  arms, 
to  deter  others  from  the  like  crime  of  defending  their  homes 
and  hearthstones  against  a  merciless  and  unprovoked  in- 
vader. 

And  this,  in  Caesar,  is  called  mercy.  Because  he  did  not 
massacre  his  political  enemies,  like  Sylla  and  Marius,  by 
wholesale  proscription;  or, like  that  cold-blooded  butcher,  his 
successor,  the  august  Octavius,  by  the  prostituted  axe  of 
justice,  the  Romans  wondered  at  his  mercy,  and  historians 
have  been  found  from  his  own  time  to  the  present  day,  to 
harp  upon  the  parrot  strain,  celebrating,  even  to  loathing 
and  disgust,  the  clemency  of  Caesar. 

The  same  disgusting  process  has  been  repeated,  even  more 
outrageously,  in  the  case  of  the  elder  Napoleon,  concerning 
whom  and  whose  character,  as  for  cruelty  or  mercy,  the 
questions  of  the  Duke  of  Enghien^s  execution,  the  massacre 
of  the  Arnaouts  at  Acre,  and  the  poisoning  of  the  plague 

*  Cicero  ad  Atticum,  X.  4. 

t  Uxellodunum,  now  Pueche  d'Issolon. 


4 to  CAIUS    JULIUS    CJESAR. 

patieuts  at  Jaffa,  have  been  argued  ad  nauseam ;  as  if  the 
blood  of  a  few  isolated  individuals  could  form  an  item  in  the 
account  of  one,  who  sent  seven  miUions  of  immortal  souls 
before  the  judgment  seat,  to  gratify  his  own  inordinate  am- 
bition. 

The  blood  of  Gaul,  of  Germany,  of  Britain,  was  neces- 
sary to  Caesar,  as  the  purchase  money  wherewith  to  buy  the 
throne  of  imperial  Rome,  and  the  wreath  of  perpetual 
laurels  ;  and  he  was  profuse  of  it,  as  he  was  of  the  gold  of 
others. 

The  blood  of  Romans  was  not  necessary  to  him,  perhaps 
the  reverse,  since  it  was  his  policy  to  be  called  the  Clement 
Caesar,  but  had  he  deemed  it  needful  to  his  purpose,  the 
kennels  of  Rome  would  have  run  with  as  red  a  tide  as 
drained  from  the  morasses  of  Hainault  into  the  polluted 
channels  of  the  Sambre  and  the  Meuse. 

It  is  of  this  man  that  M.  Michelet  *  writes,  in  his  fantastic 
History  of  the  Republic  :  ''  In  good  and  in  evil  Caesar  was 
the  man  of  humanity  I"  In  the  name  of  all  that  is  just  and 
holy,  what  then  is  cruelty  ? 

A  brief  sketch  of  the  nine  wonderful  campaigns  of  Gaul 
will  show  the  characteristics  which  I  have  mentioned,  as  the 
peculiar  excellencies  of  Caesar's  system  of  war. 

Ferguson  has  admirably  hit  off,  in  his  fine  and  philoso- 
phical History  of  the  Roman  Republic,  one  of  the  peculiar 
points  in  this  extraordinary  man's  almost  unrivalled  genius, 
in  the  following  sentence  : — f  '*  Caesar's  own  disposition  of 
his  forces,  as  has  been  already  mentioned,  in  assigning  what 
appeared  to  have  been  the  reason  of  his  conduct,  had  been 
made  with  the  greatest  ability  ;  and  the  more,  that  they 
gave  him  the  appearance  of  a  person  acting  without  de- 

*  Michelet  Hist.  Rom.  Rep.  chap.  V.  p.  285. 
t  Ferguson,  Book  IV.  Chap.  Y. 


THE  EXTENT  OF  HIS  FORESIGHT.  471 

sign^  and  suddenly  forced  to  the  measures  which  he  em- 
bra3ed.  In  talkhig  of  ordinary  men,  we  may  err  in  imputing 
too  much  to  design  and  concert,  but  with  regard  to  Caesar, 
the  mistake  to  be  feared,  is  not  perceiving  the  whole  extent 
of  his  foresight  or  plan." 

So  true  is  this  remark,  that  it  were  dangerous  even  to  as- 
•sume  that  Caesar  at  times  pushed  his  extreme  audacity  to 
the  length  of  unauthorized  rashness,  and  that  some  of  his 
operations  were  more  showy  than  sound,  and  were  conse- 
quently not  only  fruitful  of  the  greatest  risks  to  his  army, 
but  deficient  of  immediate  and  perceptible  results — for  it  is 
possible  that  these  seemingly  rash  and  inexplicable  enter- 
prises were,  in  truth,  the  result  of  deep  calculations,  and  were 
planned  to  produce  ends  which  we  cannot  now  easily  dis- 
cover, and  which  may  have  been  effected  by  movements 
apparently  inconsequential. 

In  warfare  against  barbarians,  it  is  no  inconsiderable 
point  of  the  game  to  cause  them  to  believe  in  the  omnipo- 
tence, infallibility,  and  invincibility  of  the  civilized  soldier. 
To  make  them  consider  nothing  too  great  for  his  audacity, 
too  difficult  for  his  enterprise,  impossible  to  his  genius.  And 
it  may  be  that  some  of  his  wildest  and  most  dazzling  ex- 
ploits, such  as  his  bridging  the  arrowy  Rhine,  and  carrying 
his  eagles  across  the  dark  and  misty  channel  of  the  Morini, 
to  swoop  upon  the  sacredest  and  most  sequestered  haunts  of 
Druidism,  had  thus  an  effect,  superior  to  what  appear  their 
results,  in  quenching  the  hearts  and  palsying  the  hands  of 
the  fierce  savages. 

Still  one  must  say,  that  not  a  few  of  his  daring  strokes 
appear  to  have  been  calculated  rather  for  theatrical  effect, 
and  intended  to  dazzle  the  imagination,  catch  the  applause, 
and  fire  the  national  spirits  of  the  plebeians  in  the  Suburra, 
than  to  facilitate  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  or  bring  it  to 


4T2  CAIUS   JULIUS    C^SAR. 

a  close.  In  this  connexion  another  point  may  be  insisted  on 
with  justice,  that  to  conclude  the  war  too  speedily  was 
neither  his  policy  nor  his  design.  Gaul  was  to  him  as  a 
preserve  to  a  sportsman,  and  the  Gauls  his  pheasants,  to  be 
killed  off,  as  the  exigencies  of  the  market  and  the  state  of^ 
demand  at  Rome  might  require.  But  the  warhke  race  itself 
was  to  be  sedulously  maintained,  and  the  war  itself  fostered," 
for  the  purpose  of  making  perfect  soldiers,  to  whom  it  was 
a  school  of  discipline,  valor,  and  endurance,  of  keeping  them 
ever  ready  in  arms,  ever  dependent  on  their  general,  ever  in 
exercise,  employment,  and  good  humor,  until  the  moment 
and  the  opportunity  should  arrive  for  launching  them  into  a 
mightier  conflict  and  for  a  grander  prize. 

Still  one  must  admit,  that  as  a  general  he  was  more 
showy  than  safe  ;  that  the  risks  he  ran  were  often  immense, 
and  that  at  times,  and  that  not  seldom,  he  was  forced,  as  a 
forlorn  hope,  to  extricate  himself  from  difficulties  seemingly 
insuperable,  by  delivering  battles  at  the  last  disadvantage, 
which  he  gained  only  by  the  desperate  bravery  and  unflinch- 
ing devotion  of  his  soldiery. 

Although  he  never  actually  lost  a  battle,  in  which  he  com- 
manded in  person,  no  general  ever  was  compelled  so  often  to 
fight  hand  to  hand  in  the  ranks  as  a  private,  ever  restored 
so  many  half-lost  combats,  or  won  so  many  victories,  when 
defeat  seemed  certain.  His  raising  the  siege  of  Gergovia  in 
his  seventh  campaign,  and  all  his  subsequent  operations  be- 
tween the  Allier  and  Saone,  and  the  mountains  of  Auvergne 
were  so  dangerous  and  disastrous  as  to  have  nearly  occa- 
sioned the  annihilation  of  his  army,  which  was  relieved  only 
by  the  arrival  of  a  reinforcement  of  Germans,  whose  head- 
long valor  won  a  hard  battle  and  restored  the  campaign. 

For  the  rest,  the  men  against  whom  he  fought  were  un- 
disciplined barbarians;  and,  though  the  bravest,  fiercest,  and 


HIS    EXCELLENCES    IN    WAR.  ^  473 

most  fiery  of  men  in  temper  and  spirits,  the  hardiest  in  habit, 
and  the  strongest  and  largest  in  stature  and  in  limb — so 
much  so  that  they  derided  the  legionaries  as  hcmines  jpiisilli, 
dwarfs  and  weaklings — they  knew  nothing  of  war  as  an  art; 
were  incapable  of  combined  movements  or  manoeuvres  ;  and 
were,  moreover,  as  all  savage  armies  are,  Celtic  savages 
especially,  liable  to  sudden  panics,  by  which  all  power  of  sys- 
tematic resistance  is  lost,  when  indiscriminate  carnage  and 
absolute  rout  follows  the  first  motion  toward  retreat. 

As  to  generals,  in  his  Gallic  campaigns,  Caesar  never  met 
anything  worthy  of  the  name,  the  Ariovisti,  Yercingetoriges 
and  Divitiaci  were  mere  chiefs  and  leaders,  whose  sole  ideas 
of  a  general's  duty  were  to  be  foremost  in  attack  and  last  in 
retreat,  and  whose  utmost  strategy  was  limited  to  the  war- 
fare of  ambushes  and  sudden  unexpected  attacks,  which  are 
the  ordinary  operations  of  all  savages,  particularly  those  of 
forest  or  mountain  regions. 

Yet  even  against  these  he  prevailed  almost  invariably  by 
sheer  force,  by  the  superior  fighting  qualities  of  the  legions, 
their  singular  manageableness  under  arms,  and  their  admi- 
rable armature  and  equipment,  rather  than  by  any  peculiar 
talent  of  his  own,  or  by  any  operations  which  secured  victory 
as  the  necessary  consequence  of  the  manoeuvre. 

Unequalled  in  his  disposition  and  managery  of  vast  bodies 
of  forces,  scattered,  apparently  unconnected,  but  really  sup- 
porting each  the  other,  over  wide  tracts  of  country,  admi- 
rable at  knowing  when  and  where  to  deliver  his  attacks, 
rapid  as  lightning  in  the  development  and  execution  of  his 
projects,  terrible  as  the  thunderstroke  in  following  up  and 
crushing  the  last  spark  of  life  out  of  a  defeated  and  discom- 
fited enemy,  prodigious  in  resources,  a  giant  in  his  concep- 
tions— for  in  all  these  dazzling  and  decisive  qualities  he  fully 
equalled  the  great  Napoleon — in  one  essential  point  he  fell 


474  CAIUS   JULIUS    CiESAR. 

far  behind  not  him  alone,  bat  scores,  nay  hundreds  of  far 
inferior  captains. 

As  a  manoeuvering  general  I  cannot  rate  him  even  as  a 
second-class  commander.  I  do  not  know  a  single  action 
which  he  fought  either  against  barbarians  with  Romans,  or 
against  Romans  with  barbarians — for  of  these  were  the 
legions  constituted  with  which  he  conquered  Pompey  and  his 
successors — in  which  he  prevailed  by  any  movement,  or  svs- 
tem  of  operations,  ensuring  or  even  facilitating  success.  In 
his  operations  at  Dyrrachium  he  was  completely  out- 
manceuvered,  out-generalled,  beaten,  and  might  have  been 
destroyed,  by  Pompey,  had  that  officer  shown  as  much 
ability  in  completing  as  he  had  exerted  in  opening  the 
battle.  In  the  subsequent  operations  through  Thessaly  and 
Macedonia,  Pompey  had  by  far  the  best  of  him  in  strategy; 
as  with  all  his  efforts  Caesar  entirely  failed  to  force  him  to 
give  battle,  and,  could  the  petulant  patrician  army  of  the 
republican  general  have  been  restrained  from  fighting,  the 
campaign,  and  probably  the  war,  would  have  terminated  in 
favor  of  the  commonwealth.  Battle  once  joined  on  fair 
ground,  the  admirable  quality  of  Caesar^s  legions,  combining 
the  vigor  of  bone,  boundless  contempt  of  life,  and  fierce 
impetuosity  of  barbarians,  with  the  iron  discipline  and  per- 
fect tactics  of  Roman  veterans,  rendered  the  victory  easy 
and  certain. 

Yet  Pompey  himself  had  no  claim  to  rank,  nor  ever  has 
been  ranked  as  more  than  a  second,  or  perhaps  third,  rate 
commander;  and  his  greatly  lauded  and  greatly  exaggerated 
victories  in  the  east,  were  rightly  designated  by  Cato,  his 
own  friend  and  partizan,  as  victories  won  by  men  over 
women. 

At  Ruspiua,  in  Numidia,  he  was  surprised  and  over- 
reached, and  extricated  himself  by  the  superiority  of  his  co- 


POWER   OVER   MEN.  '     -  4^5 

horts  over  the  light  troops  and  I^^Tumidians  of  Labienus  and 
Petreius.  From  the  siege  of  Uzita  he  was  forced  to  make 
a  perilous  retreat ;  in  the  battle  of  Thapsus  the  victory  was 
carried  by  an  impetuous  onslaught  of  the  legions,  not  only 
without  orders,  but  literally  contrary  to  them,  though  Caesar 
followed  it  up  and  crushed  the  relics  of  the  fight  with  his 
usual  vigor  and  determination.  In  the  battle  of  Munda, 
his  last  and  crowning  victory,  so  far  was  he  from  owing  his 
success  to  his  conduct  as  an  officer,  that  he  was  fighting 
as  a  private  legionary,  with  sword  and  buckler  in  the  ranks, 
when  a  mere  accident  turned  the  fortune  of  the  day,  and 
converted  what  was  almost  a  defeat  into  a  complete  victory. 

In  his  powers  of  forming  troops,  both  as  to  their  physique 
and  their  morale,  he  has  no  superior,  ancient  or  modern. 
In  fair  fight  his  men  were  never  beaten  by  any  superiority 
of  numbers,  and  their  confidence  in  their  chief  was  so  bound- 
less, that  when  he  was  at  their  head  they  held  themselves 
invincible,  and  victory  over  an  enemy  certain.  He  was 
bounteous  to  them  in  the  extreme,  affable  and  familiar, 
knowing  his  veterans  by  name,  and  having  the  Napoleon's 
faculty  of  making  them  rush  upon  death  for  a  word  of  ap- 
plause, dearer  than  any  decoration  or  reward.  He  marched 
on  foot,  at  their  head,  through  deep  snows  and  driving 
rains  ;  rode  on  horseback  through  the  scorching  noonday 
heat,  while  his  secretaries  were  carried  in  litters,  writing 
letters  from  his  dictation,  in  four  or  five  different  languages 
at  once  ;  swam  the  most  rapid  rivers,  braved  every  peril,  en- 
dured every  hardship,  in  defiance  of  the  terrible  disease  of  epi- 
lepsy to  which  he  was  constitutionally  subject,  and  of  a  frame 
naturally  delicate,  and  shaken  by  excesses  and  debauchery. 

Had  he  been  equal  in  his  method  of  handling  soldiers  in 
the  field,  to  himself,  in  forming  them  for  their  profession,  in 
conceiving  campaigns,  and  carrying  all  before  him  by  the 


416  CAIUS    JULIUS    CiESAR. 

impetuous  rush  of  his  energetic  genius,  he  would  have  been 
the  greatest  general  the  world  has  ever  seen.  But  he  was 
not  so  ;  and  in  my  opinion,  notwithstanding  his  infinite  and 
over-mastering  genius,  which,  like  that  of  Napoleon,  was  not 
sublime  in  one  line,  but  supreme  in  all,  turning  everything 
which  he  touched  into  gold,  must  rank  far  below  such  sol- 
diers as  Epaminondas,  Xenophon,  Alexander,  Hannibal,  or 
of  moderns— Frederick  the  Great,  Marlborough,  Turenne, 
Wellington,  or  greatest,  though  last.  Napoleon. 

On  the  twenty-fifth  of  March,  of  the  year  of  Rome  696, 
B.  C.  58,  learning  that  the  Helvetii  had  broken  *  up  from 
their  own  country,  burning  their  towns  and  villages, 
and  had  set  out  on  their  migratory  expedition,  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty-eight  thousand  souls  in  all,  of  whom  ninety- 
two  thousand  were  warriors,  or  men  capable  of  bearing 
arms,  he  set  forth  to  the  scene  of  war.  This  vast  mul- 
titude, on  Caesar's  arrival  at  Geneva,  were  pouring  down 
toward  that  town  with  the  intention  of  passing  by  the 
defiles,  between  the  Jura  and  the  Yuache,  into  Gaul,  jour- 
neying down  the  Rhone,  in  the  direction  of  Lyons  and  the 
Roman  province.  This  he  determined  to  prevent,  and 
having  gained  some  time  necessary  for  bringing  up  his 
troops,  by  pretended  negotiations,  broke  down  the  bridges, 
fortified  the  banks  of  the  Rhone  and  the  mountain  passes 
with  works,  consisting  of  a  wall  sixteen  feet  in  height,  and 
a  corresponding  ditch,  nineteen  miles  m  length,  from  the 
lake  to  the  cliflFs  of  the  Jura,  and  then  to  the  request  of  the 
Helvetii,  to  be  allowed  a  free  passage  on  condition  of  ab- 
staining from  all  hostilities  toward  the  Romans  or  their 
allies,  he  returned  a  positive  refusal,  accompanied  by  a  pe- 

*  This  and  all  the  following  details  are  from  Caesar  de  Bello  Gallico, 
Xj,  et  seq.    Dio  Cassius,  XXXVIII.  31  et  seq.     Plutarch  vit.  Caesaris, 

xvm. 


CUTS    OFF   THE    ZURICHERS.  4^*1 

remptory  command,  that  they  should  return  to  their  own 
cantons,  and  disturb  the  peace  of  the  world  no  longer. 
This  done,  he  left  the  lines  in  charge  of  Labienus,  with  the 
only  legion  then  in  Gaul,  and,  himself  hurrying  into  Italy, 
levied  two  new  legions,  and  brought  up  three  others  of  vete- 
rans, which  were  lying  in  winter-quarters  at  Aquileia,  under 
the  Carnian  Alps.  This  force  he  led  in  seven  days  from 
Ocelo,  in  the  Cisalpine  province,  across  the  Pennine  Alps, 
probably  by  the  pass  of  Traversette,  under  the  Monte  Yiso, 
not  without  some  hard  fighting,  into  the  country  of  the 
Allobroges,  and  thence  to  Geneva,  where  he  found  that  the 
enemy  not  daring  to  attack  his  lines,  had  fallen  back  along 
the  lake,  and  turning  the  Jura  by  its  eastern  extremity  and 
the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  had  entered  France,  and  were 
marching  into  the  heart  of  the  country,  by  the  valley  of  the 
Saone,  threatening  the  Sequani  and  iEdui,  tribes  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Doubs  and  Chalons,  who  were  allies  of 
Rome,  and  implored  her  aid  against  these  formidable  armies. 

On  receiving  the  deputies  of  these  cantons,  Caesar  deter- 
mined to  pursue  the  enemy,  which  he  did  with  his  usual  energy 
and  speed,  and  overtook  them  as  they  were  in  the  act  of  pass- 
ing the  broad  and  deep  but  sluggish  stream  of  the  Saone. 
Three  of  the  four  cantons  into  which  the  whole  people  of  the 
Helvetii  were  divided,  had  crossed  over  ;  but  the  Tigurini, 
supposed  to  be  the  men  of  Zurich,  yet  lingered  on  the  hither 
bank.  This  was  the  canton  which  in  the  commencement  of 
the  Cimbric  and  Teutonic  campaign  had  slain  the  consul 
Cassius  and  sent  his  army  under  the  yoke.  On  these  sally- 
ing from  his  camp  shortly  after  midnight,  he  fell  with  incre- 
dible fury  at  the  head  of  three  legions,  and  put  the  most  of 
them  to  the  sword,  a  few  miserable  relics  only  escaping 
into  the  neighboring  forests. 

This  done  he  bridged  the  Saone  in  a  single  day,  which 


478  CAIUS   JULIUS    CiESAR. 

struck  more  terror  into  the  minds  of  the  Helvetii  than  the 
slaughter  of  their  brethren,  for  they  had  passed  twenty  days 
in  crossmg  a  river  which  he  passed  in  less  than  as  many 
hours ;  so  that  they  attempted  to  treat ;  but  as  Caesar  would 
hear  of  no  terms  short  of  their  return  to  Switzerland,  they 
continued  their  march,  and  he  his  pursuit  toward  the  town 
of  Autun.  Once  his  cavalry,  which  was  entirely  composed 
of  Gauls  under  Roman  officers,  pressing  too  hardly  upon 
their  rear,  they  halted,  and  repulsed  them  with  considerable 
loss,  which  emboldened  them  so  much  that  they  resolved  to 
give  battle.  Caesar,  however,  having  sent  Labienus  to 
turn  them,  and  occupy  a  hill  in  their  rear,  they  took  the 
alarm,  decamped,  and  pursued  their  march  before  the  attack 
could  be  commenced  ;  but  two  days  after,  the  legions  having 
turned  off  from  the  direct  line  of  pursuit  toward  Autun  for 
convenience  of  foraging,  the  Helvetii  learning  the  movement 
from  some  Gaulish  deserters,  fancied  that  Caesar  was  retreat- 
ing, and  turning  on  their  traces  attacked  him  furiously.  The 
battle  was  long  and  obstinate,  and  once  the  Boii  and  Tulingi, 
some  fifteen  thousand  strong,  having  wheeled  round  a  hillock, 
and  fallen  on  the  flank  of  the  legions,  the  issue  was  doubt- 
ful, but  discipline  and  Roman  valor  prevailed  ;  and  after 
fighting  from  one  in  the  afternoon  until  nightfall,  victory 
declared  itself  for  Caesar.  Out  of  all  that  great  host,  one 
hundred  and  thirty  thousand  persons  only  escaped,  and  by 
forced  marches  gained  four  days  on  the  Romans,  who  were 
compelled  to  halt  three  days  to  care  for  their  wounded  and 
bury  their  dead. 

On  the  fourth  day,  as  Caesar  was  breaking  up  his  camp, 
messengers  came  from  the  Helvetii,  oflTering  to  surrender,  for 
that  they  were  starving  ;  on  which  they  were  commanded 
to  give  hostages,  restore  all  the  fugitive  slaves  who  had 
joined  them,  lay  down  their  arms  and  await  the  generaPs 


,  TREATED    AS    ENEMIES.  479 

pleasure.  All  complied  except  six  thousand  men  of  the 
canton  Yerbigenus,  who  fled  by  night,  but  being  pursued  by 
the  Roman  cavalry,  were  brought  back  and  treated  as  ene- 
mies— in  other  words,  cut  to  pieces.  So  much  for  the  cle- 
mency of  Caesar. 

The  remainder,  Helvetii,  Latobriges,  and  Tulingi,  were 
compelled  to  return  to  their  own  cantons  among  the  moun- 
tains, and  to  re-build  their  towns  and  villages  which  they 
had  burned  ;  but  as  they  had  consumed  all  their  grain,  the 
Allobroges,  or  people  of  Savoy,  were  ordered  to  supply  them 
with  food,  and  seed  corn  for  the  ensuing  season.  The  Boii 
only,  being  men  of  surpassing  valor,  were  allowed,  at  the 
request  of  the  -^dui,  to  remain  in  that  country,  and  were  in- 
corporated in  the  clan. 

So  soon  as  this  conflict  had  decided  the  question  as  to  the 
Helvetic  settlement  in  Gaul,  the  Sequani  and  ^dui  asked 
permission  of  Caesar  to  hold  a  general  assembly  of  their 
allies  and  all  the  Gaulish  tribes  and  clans  in  general,  at  his 
head-quarters  ;  when  it  speedily  appeared  that  these  unfor- 
tunate people,  liberated  by  the  Roman  victory  from  one 
fearful  impending  calamity,  had  made  up  their  mind  to 
implore  assistance  against  another  enemy  more  dan- 
gerous, because  already  naturalized  and  allocated  in  the 
land. 

Some  years  before,  it  would  appear,  that  being  hard 
pressed  in  a  local  war  with  their  neighbors  the  JEdui,  the 
Sequani  and  Arverni — the  latter  inhabitants  of  the  beautiful 
districts  of  Auvergne — they  had  invited  the  Germans  to  their 
aid,  fifteen  thousand  of  whom  had  crossed  the  Rhine,  with 
their  chief,  Ariovistus.  That  war  ended,  the  Germans  not 
only  remained  in  the  country,  grievously  oppressing  their  late 
allies,  and  forcing  them  to  give  up  to  them  a  third  part  of 
all  their  lands,  but  had  been  continually  calling  reinforce- 


480  CAIUS   JULIUS    CJESAR.  ^  ^ 

ments  from  beyond  the  Rhine,  until  they  now  numbered  one 
hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men,  instead  of  the  fifteen 
thousand  who  had  first  issued  from  the  dark  gorges  and 
shadowy  dingles  of  the  black  forest.  Thus  augmented  in 
numbers,  their  demands  augmenting  in  like  ratio,  they  threat- 
ened all  Gaul  with  ruinous  occupation,  and  against  these, 
the  yet  more  rugged  barbarians  of  the  north,  the  semi- 
civilized  Gauls,  on  the  frontier  of  the  province,  claimed  the 
aid  of  Italian  skill  and  prowess. 

Than  this  Coesar  desired  nothing  better,  for  he  secured  at 
once  a  legitimate  cause  of  war,  and  allies  on  whom  to  base 
his  operations.  Accordingly  deputies  were  sent  to  Ariovis- 
tus,  demanding  that  he  should  render  himself  to  Caesar's 
head-quarters,  where  to  hold  a  solemn  conference.  But  the 
hardy  barbarian  replied  that  he  had  no  occasion  to  confer 
with  Caesar,  but  that  if  Caesar  wished  to  talk  with  him,  he 
might  come  and  find  him.  "  That  he  would  neither  trust 
himself  alone  in  the  camp  of  the  Romans,  nor  be  at  the 
trouble  of  raising  an  army  to  protect  himself."  On  receiv- 
ing this  reply,  Caesar  collected  grain  and  forage  sufficient  for 
the  enterprise,  and  marched  with  extreme  rapidity  to  Be- 
san96n,  a  strong  and  well  fortified  place,  nearly  surrounded 
by  a  semicircular  reach  of  the  river  Doubs,  of  which  he  bad 
information  that  the  German  intended  to  possess  himself. 
Here  the  army  first  learned  that  they  were  to  be  directed 
against  the  Germans,  and  such  a  panic  fell  upon  the  whole 
army,  that  wills  were  commonly  made  throughout  the 
camp  ;  and  the  men  were  so  much  dispirited,  that  Caesar 
found  it  necessary  to  harangue  the  troops  in  very  severe 
terms,  and  state  his  determination,  if  all  else  should  desert 
him,  to  march,  himself,  against  the  enemy  with  the  tenth 
legion,  alone.  Henceforth  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand 
why  the  tenth  legion  loved  Caesar,  and  dared  and  did  all 


ARIOVISTUS.  481 

things  to  deserve  and  retain  his  good  opinion.  The  spirits 
of  the  soldiers  thus  restored,  taking  with  him  the  Druid  Di- 
vitiacus  as  a  guide  ;  Caesar  advanced,  till  he  was  informed 
by  his  scouts  that  Ariovistus  lay  within  four  and  twenty 
miles,  when  he  halted,  and  fortified  his  camp.  The  German 
now  proposed  a  conference,  both  parties  to  be  attended  by 
their  cavalry,  but  neither  to  bring  any  footmen.  Caesar 
accepted  the  proposal,  but  having  no  Roman  horse,  and  not 
choosing  to  trust  himself  to  the  guardianship  of  the  Gaulish 
cavalry,  mounted  the  tenth  legion  on  the  troop  horses  of  the 
JEduan  contingent,  by  which  he  still  further  won  their  affec- 
tions, repaired  to  the  place  appointed  for  the  interview, 
which  was  a  knoll  in  the  centre  of  an  extensive  plain. 

The  conference  had  of  course  no  results,  and  was  broken 
off  by  indications  of  treachery  on  the  part  of  the  German 
horse,  who  began  to  ride  up  in  great  force  to  the  knoll,  and 
throw  their  darts,  whereupon  Caesar  declined  farther  parley, 
and  returned  to  his  camp  amid  the  indignation  of  his  sol- 
diers, who  clamored  to  be  led  against  the  treacherous  enemy. 
A  second  request  of  the  king  that  deputies  should  be  sent 
to  arrange  a  truce  with  him,  was  met  by  the  dispatch  of 
Caius  Yalerius  Procillus  and  Marcus  Mellius,  both  bound  to 
the  German  by  ties  of  the  closest  hospitality,  both  of  whom 
he  affected  to  consider  spies,  and  threw  them  into  chains. 

Nothing  now  was  left  but  to  prepare  for  battle.  On  the 
second  day  Ariovistus  advanced  to  within  six  miles  of 
Caesar^s  camp,  fortified  himself,  and  sat  down  at  the  foot  of 
a  strong  mountain  ;  the  day  following  h'e  marched  past 
Caesar's  entrenched  camp,  and  posted  himself  two  miles  in 
his  rear,  in  a  strong  position,  with  a  view  to  cut  off  his  sup- 
plies of  grain  as  they  came  up  from  the  ^dui,  and  to 
straiten  him  for  the  want  of  provisions.  Caesar  instantly 
drew  out  his  legions,  formed  his  lines,  and  offered  battle  ;  but 
21 


482  CAIUS   JULIUS    C^SAR. 

Ariovistus  would  not  fight,  but  kept  his  infantry  within  their 
entrenchments,  and  skirmished  daily  with  his  horse.  From 
some  captives  Caesar  learned  that  the  German  women  had 
forbidden  them  to  fight,  on  pain  of  defeat,  until  the  full  of 
the  moon,  when  they  promised  victory  ;  whereupon  he  de- 
termined to  anticipate  that  day,  so  as  to  deprive  them  of  the 
aid  and  encouragement  of  their  national  superstition.  By 
dividing  his  forces  and  palisading  a  second  camp  in  the  rear 
of  the  Germans,  as  if  to  secure  his  allies,  he  drew  them  to 
risk  an  attack,  which  being  bloodily  repulsed,  he  drew  out 
all  his  force,  formed  it  in  the  plain,  and  advanced,  as  if  to 
storm  the  camp  of  Ariovistus,  when  the  fierce  barbarian 
made  a  sortie  en  masse,  and  delivered  battle  in  the  open 
ground,  having  his  rear  blockaded  with  his  wains  and  cars, 
both  as  a  fortification  and  as  a  prevention  against  flight. 
The  battle  was  obstinate  and  fierce.  On  the  right  wing, 
where  Caesar  led  in  person,  the  legions  cast  away  their  pila  ; 
went  in,  hand  to  hand,  with  sword  and  buckler,  with  a  rush 
that  carried  all  before  it,  and  their  superiority  at  those 
weapons  secured  and  fixed  the  advantage.  On  the  left  wing, 
however,  the  numbers  of  the  enemy  told  with  fearful  effect, 
and  the  action  labored  and  went  doubtfully,  until  young  Pub- 
lius  Crassus,  who  commanded  the  horse,  galloped  like  light- 
ning to  the  rear,  brought  up  the  reserves  of  the  triarii,  re- 
stored the  fight,  and  turned  it  into  a  complete  victory. 

The  enemy  were  slaughtered  by  the  horse  without  mercy 
or  relaxation,  till  the  Rhine,  fifty  miles  distant,  put  a  stop 
to  the  pursuit  but  not  to  the  carnage,  for  a  few  only  of  the 
strongest  could  swim  across  the  violent  river,  and  fewer  yet 
found  boats  in  which  to  pass  it.  Of  these,  one  was  Ario- 
vistus ;  all  the  rest  perished  by  the  sword,  women  and  child- 
ren not  less  than  armed  warriors.  Two  wives  of  the  king 
were  slaughtered  in  the  chase,  one  of  his  daughters  likewise 


THE   LEGION    OF    "  THE    LARK."  483 

— the  other,  less  fortunate,  was  taken.  The  captive  depu- 
ties were  recovered,  and  nothing  marred  the  rejoicings  for 
this  great  victory.  On  the  news  of  this  victory  the  Suevi 
and  Ubii,  two  fierce  Germanic  tribes  who  had  marched  down 
to  the  Rhine,  in  readiness  to  pass  it,  and  join  their  country- 
men, fell  back  into  their  forests.  Leaving  his  army  in  winter 
quarters,  near  the  Saone,  under  Labienus,  Caesar  returned 
into  his  province  of  hither  Gaul,  to  hold  the  assemblies  and 
preside  over  its  civic  government.  He  had  finished  two 
great  wars  in  one,  his  first,  campaign,  had  taken  the  lives  of 
three  hundred  and  forty-eight  thousand  human  beings,  who 
had  done  no  wrong  to  himself  or  his  country,  and  might  have 
claimed  a  triumph,  but  his  thirst  was  not  yet  half  slaked, 
either  for  blood  or  glory. 

In  the  ensuing  spring,  B.  C.  5t,  he  was  aroused,  at  the 
very  opening  of  the  season,  by  a  report  that  the  Belgse,  re- 
puted to  be  the  hardiest  and  bravest  race  in  Gaul,  of  dis- 
tinct blood  from  the  purely  Celtic  tribes,  who  inhabited  all 
the  north-east  of  France  and  the  Netherlands,  including 
Holland  and  Alsacia,  from  the  Rhine  to  the  Saone  and 
Seine,  and  from  the  Marne  to  the  British  channel  and  the 
North  sea,  were  combined  in  a  general  league  against  the 
Romans,  whose  continued  occupation  of  Gaul  disturbed 
them,  and  whose  intentions  they  began  to  suspect.  Again 
an  occasion  had  made  itself  to  his  hands,  and  as  if  he  had 
been  already  a  crowned  head  instead  of  the  responsible  ma- 
gistrate of  a  republic,  setting  at  nought  the  ordinance  of 
the  senate,  which  limited  the  establishment  of  his  province 
to  five  legions,  having  already  six  in  winter-quarters  on* the 
Saone,  he  at  once  raised  two  more,  one  entirely  of  Celtic 
Gauls  of  the  hither  province,  which  received  the  title  of 
Alauda,  or  the  legion  of  the  lark,  from  a  tuft  of  plumes  re- 
sembling the  crest  of  that  bird  which  they  wore  in  their 


484  CAIUS  JULIUS    C^SAR. 

casques.  This  legion,  which  ultimately  became  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  in  the  service,  he  sent  on,  with  the  other 
new  levies,  to  the  seat  of  war,  under  Quintus  Pedius,  one  of 
his  lieutenants,  or  as  we  should  rank  them,  generals  of  divi- 
sion, while  so  soon  as  the  crops  were  green  and  ready  to 
supply  forage,  he  followed  and  joined  the  army. 

Advancing  into  the  enemy^s  country,  he  soon  learned  that 
the  confederates  amounted  to  two  hundred  and  fifty-eight 
thousand  men,  to  whom  he  could  oppose  eight  legions,  beside 
Cretan,  Barbaric,  and  Numidian  light  troops,  with  the  large 
contingents  of  cavalry  furnished  by  the  Gaulish  allies. 
Allying  himself  to  the  Remi,  whose  country  is  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Rheims,  lying  between  the  Aisne  and  Yesle,  the 
confluence  of  which  forms  the  Oise,  he  sent  a  strong  division 
of  the  -^duans  into  the  Beauvoisis  to  plunder  the  country 
and  make  a  diversion,  while  after  garrisoning  Bibrax,  a  city 
of  the  Remi,  with  his  light  troops  and  foreign  archery,  so 
as  to  render  it  proof  to  any  coup  de  main,  he  pitched  his 
camp  in  a  very  strong  position,  having  his  left  covered  by  the 
Aisne,  having  a  bridge  defended  by  a  strong  tete  de  pont, 
in  which  he  posted  Quintus  Titurius  Sabinus,  another  of  his 
lieutenants,  with  six  cohorts.  The  other  flank  of  his  camp 
rested  on  a  hill,  defended  with  strong  field  works,  from  either 
extremity  of  which  he  cut  two  deep,  diverging  fosses,  with 
a  redoubt  at  the  outer  extremity  of  each,  well  garrisoned 
with  artillery,  to  cover  his  flanks,  apprehending  that  thq 
enemy,  with  their  vast  superiority  of  force,  might  endeavor 
to  turn  him. 

Having  attempted  Bibrax  and  sustained  a  sharp  repulse, 
the  Belgae  now  advanced  in  force,  and  sat  down  at  about 
two  miles  from  Caesar's  camp,  their  bivouac,  as  indicated  by 
their  line  of  fires,  extending  over  a  front  of  above  eight 
miles.     As  soon  as  it  was  hght,  Caesar,  leaving  two  legions 


THE    FORDS    OF    THE   AISNE.  485 

in  Ms  entrenched  camps,  and  leading  out  the  rest,  offered 
battle,  both  his  flanks  being  covered  by  his  ditches  aud  re- 
doubts. A  small  swamp,  however,  lay  between  the  two 
positions,  and  neither  party  chose  to  attempt  it,  being  aware 
that  they  should  be  attacked  to  disadvantage  in  the  broken 
ground  of  the  morass  ;  so  that  after  a  smart  cavalry  action, 
in  which  the  Romans  had  some  advantage,  both  parties  re- 
tired to  the  camps.  On  the  following  day  the  Belgae  passing 
the  Roman  camp,  probably  by  the  right,  attempted  to  ford 
the  river,  in"  order  to  attack  the  tete  de  pont  defended  by 
Titurius  in  reverse,  and  to  take  the  Roman  lines  in  the  rear. 
So  soon  as  this  movement  was  developed,  Caesar  passed  all 
his  cavalry,  light-armed  Numidians,  archery  and  slingers, 
over  the  bridge  to  the  aid  of  his  lieutenant,  and  these  falling 
strenuously  on  the  enemy  while  entangled  in  the  fords,  slew 
vast  numbers  of  them,  surrounded  and  cut  off  those  who 
had  already  passed  with  the  cavalry,  and  drove  back  the 
rest,  who  strove  audaciously  to  march  over  the  bodies  of 
their  own  dead,  which  bridged  the  river,  by  sustained  volleys 
of  their  admirable  missiles. 

Foiled  in  their  attempt  on  the  city  of  Bibrax,  and  de- 
feated in  the  fords  of  the  Aisne,  the  Belgae  now  lost  heart, 
and  decamped  by  night,  but  with  so  much  noise  and  confu- 
sion, that  Caesar  apprehending  an  ambuscade,  declined  the 
attack,  and  kept  his  men  on  hand.  On  the  following  morn- 
ing, however,  finding  that  the  camps  were  really  vacated,  he 
launched  all  his  cavalry  under  Quintus  Pedius  and  Aurun- 
culeius  Cotta,  with  three  legions  in  reserve,  commanded  by 
Titus  Labienus.  These  hewed  down  and  trampled  under 
foot  thousands  and  thousands  of  the  fugitives  straggling  and 
mobbed  together,  without  resistance,  before  they  reached 
the  solid  and  compact  rear  guard,  which  stood  firm  and 
fought  till  it  was  wholly  cut  to  pieces  ;  those  in  the  van  fly- 


486  CAIUS   JULIUS   C^SAR. 

ing  headlong  as  they  heard  the  tumult,  and  leaving  their 
comrades  to  their  fate. 

After  prodigious  slaughter  the  pursuers  returned  to  the 
camp,  and  on  the  next  day  giving  the  enemy  no  time  to  rally 
or  recover  from  their  panic,  C«sar  entered  the  country  of 
the  Suessones,  and  besieged  their  capital,  Noviodunum,  now 
Soissons,  with  such  vigor,  that  terrified  at  the  effect  of  the 
Roman  engines,  they  surrendered  at  discretion,  and  were 
spared  on  the  intercession  of  their  neighbors  the  Remi. 
Thence  he  penetrated  the  Beauvoisis,  and  received  its  sub- 
mission ;  but,  not  content  with  such  partial  success,  and 
resolute  to  subdue  the  whole  of  this  obdurate  race,  he  forced 
his  way,  axe  in  hand,  felling  the  dense  woods,  and  causeway- 
ing the  morasses,  through  the  vast  virgin  forests  to  the  river 
Sabis,  now  the  Sambre,  beyond  which  he  learned  that  the 
Nervii,  the  fiercest  and  hardiest  of  all  the  Belgic  family, 
were  in  arms  with  the  Yeromandui  and  Atrebates,  and  pre- 
pared to  give  battle. 

These  barbarians  had  learned,  it  appears,  from  deserters, 
that  the  march  of  the  Roman  armies  was  conducted  by 
columns  of  legions,  a  great  space  being  left  between  the 
columns,  which  was  occupied  by  the  baggage,  and  it  was 
their  plan  of  battle  to  let  the  first  legion  pass  their  ambush, 
fall  on  it  and  destroy  it  while  the  bulk  of  the  army  was  yet 
at  a  distance,  and  to  overpower  the  rest  in  detail  as  they 
came,  one  by  one,  into  action.  Casually,  however,  Caesar 
had  altered  his  order  of  march,  in  consequence  of  the  vicinity 
of  the  enemy  ;  and  the  van  consisted  of  six  entire  legions, 
with  all  the  light  troops  and  horse,  then  the  baggage  of  the 
whole  army,  and  the  two  legions  last  levied  in  the  rear,  as  a 
reserve  and  baggage  guard.  This  disposition,  though  made 
in  ignorance  of  the  enemy^s  plan,  saved  the  army  ;  but  the 


THE    AMBDSR.  487 

action  which  ensued  was  the  best  contested  that  had  yet  oc- 
curred in  Gaul,  and  the  legions  were  all  but  defeated. 

On  reaching  the  Sambre  the  enemy^s  horse  made  some 
demonstrations  of  attack,  no  infantry  showing  themselves, 
but  were  speedily  dispersed  by  the  archery  and  slingers, 
supported  by  the  cavalry,  who  charged  across  the  river  and 
drove  the  ISTervii  into  the  cover  of  the  woods.  Thereupon 
the  six  legions  laid  aside  their  arms,  and  began  to  fortify 
their  camp,  undisturbed,  and  not  imagining  the  enemy  to  be 
in  the  vicinity,  so  perfect  was  the  solitude  and  silence  of  the 
forests.  But  no  sooner  did  the  first  baggage  wagons  appear, 
which  was  the  moment  agreed  on  by  the  Gauls,  than  the 
enemy  were  everywhere  at  once,  as  if  by  magic.  The 
woods,  the  river,  the  hills  were  full  of  them,  and  at  the 
same  time  they  were  hand  to  hand  with  the  men,  before  they 
could  get  on  their  helmets  or  uncase  their  shields,  much  less 
effect  any  formation.  For  a  time  all  was  desperate  confu- 
sion, but  the  men  and  the  officers  all  knew  their  duty,  and, 
without  waiting  for  Caesar's  orders,  fell  in  as  best  they 
might,  fighting  all  the  while  hand  to  hand,  and  at  length 
got  into  array  of  battle.  On  the  left  wing  the  ninth  and 
tenth  legions,  who  were  the  first  to  form,  received  the  Atre- 
bates  with  such  a  hurtling  volley  of  their  pila,  that  they 
broke  them,  and  charging  home  with  their  swords,  drove 
them  across  the  river,  where  they  rallied  and  fought  hard, 
only  to  be  again  routed.  In  another  part  of  the  field,  for 
the  legions,  as  surprised,  necessarily  fought  unconnectedly,  and 
without  concert,  the  eleventh  and  eighth  beat  the  Yeroman- 
dui,  who  were  opposed  to  them,  and  drove  them  into  the  bed 
of  the  river  from  the  upper  ground,  where  there  was  again 
severe  fighting.  But  the  advance  of  the  ninth  and  tenth 
had  uncovered  the  left  of  the  centre  and  the  half-fortified 
camp,  in  defence  of  which  fought  the  twelfth  and  seventh ;  and 


488  CAIUS   JULIUS    C^SAR. 

on  these  fell  the  brunt  of  the  attack,  for  the  Nervii  fell  upon 
them  in  solid  column,  front  and  flank  at  once,  led  by  their 
king,  Boduognatus,  and  they  were  outnumbered  and  almost 
deforced  from  their  ground.  At  the  same  moment,  the 
cavalry  and  light  troops  returning  from  their  easy  victory  of 
the  enemy^s  horse,  an(^  all  the  camp  followers  and  horse 
boys,  who  had  gone  out  from  the  rear  of  the  camp  to  plunder, 
fell  unexpectedly  into  the  main  body  of  the  Gauls,  and  were 
so  totally  routed  and  dispersed,  that  the  auxiliary  mounted 
troops  from  Treves,  who  stood  well  for  courage  and  conduct, 
fled,  without  drawing  bridle,  at  speed  to  their  own  country, 
some  fifty  miles  distant,  and  reported  that  the  Roman  army 
was  annihilated.  And  in  fact  little  was  wanting  to  make  it 
so.  The  fourth  cohort  of  the  twelfth  had  lost  all  its  centu- 
rions, its  standard-bearer  and  its  eagle;  scarcely  an  officer 
in  the  whole  legion  but  was  killed  or  wounded,  and  the  men 
were  dropping  away  from  the  rear  singly  or  in  knots,  when 
Caesar  coming  up,  snatched  a  shield  from  one  of  the  pri- 
vates, and  rushing  to  the  front,  ordered  the  ranks  to  open 
and  charge  hand  to  hand  with  sword  and  buckler.  The 
seventh  legion  being  equally  pressed  and  reduced  in  numbers, 
he  commanded  the  tribunes  to  form  it  into  one  body  with 
•  the  twelfth,  and  to  advance.  The  battle  was  thus  some- 
what restored,  but  things  looked  ill  until  the  two  legions  of 
the  baggage  guard,  hearing  the  din  of  conflict,  were  brought 
up  at  double  quick  time  and  carried  into  action  gallantly  by 
their  officers,  while  Titus  Labienus  perceiving,  from  the 
higher  ground  on  the  left  to  which  he  had  chased  the  Atre- 
bates,  how  things  went  in  the  centre,  detached  the  tenth 
legion  to  its  succor.  That  was  the  crisis  of  the  day.  The 
tide  was  turned,  and  the  cavalry,  rallying  and  eager  to 
recover  lost  credit,  charged  with  such  vigor  that  the  day 
was  won.     The  Nervii  fought  to  the  last  and  died,  almost 


THE    ADUATUCI.  4.89 

to  a  man.  That  day  closed  the  existence  of  the  Nervii,  as 
a  nation.  When,  a  few  days  later,  the  women  and  old  men 
came  in  and  sued  for  mercy,  which  strange  to  say,  was 
granted  ;  they  reported,  that  of  six  hundred  chiefs  of  their 
tribe,  three  had  escaped  the  carnage,  and  of  sixty  thousand 
men,  scarcely  five  hundred  capable  of  bearing  arms. 

The  Aduatuci,  whose  contingent  had  not  arrived  in  time 
to  share  the  battle,  and  who  were  no  others  than  the  relics 
of  the  great  Cimbric  and  Teutonic  host,  who  were  destroyed 
by  Marius,  were  next  to  be  reduced.  They  had  been  re- 
ceived into  fraternity  by  the  Belgic  tribes,  who  were  proba- 
bly of  Cimbric  blood,  and  had  obtained  from  them  a  town 
and  fortress,  supposed  to  be  impregnable,  not  far  from  the 
modern  city  of  Tongres.  At  first,  these  people  offered  to 
surrender  and  give  up  the  greater  part  of  their  arms,  which 
they  threw  over  the  walls,  so  that  they  actually  filled  the 
ditches,  and  nearly  reached  the  level  of  the  ramparts  ;  on 
the  following  night,  however,  doubting  the  good  faith  of  the 
Romans,  they  armed  again,  sallied  at  midnight,  and  furiously 
assaulted  the  camp.  There  was  hard  fighting  all  night,  but 
at  daybreak  they  were  beaten  back  with  the  loss  of  four 
thousand  men,  and  shut  up  in  the  city,  when  the  gates 
being  forced,  fifty  thousand  souls  of  the  inhabitants  were 
sold  as  slaves. 

In  the  mean  while,  Publius  Crassus,  who  had  been  de- 
tached with  a. legion  to  reduce  the  clans  on  the  sea  coast, 
reported  that  all  the  nations  had  submitted  to  the  Koman 
authority,  so  far  as  to  Yannes  in  Britanny,  along  all  the 
shores  of  the  channel,  and  down  the  coast  of  the  ocean  so 
far  as  to  the  embouchure  of  the  Loire.  Thereupon  Caesar 
cantoned  the  legions,  for  their  winter  quarters,  about  the 
cities  of  Angers,  and  Chartres  on  the  lower  Loire  and  in  the 
district  of  Touraine,  bordering  on  the  countries  last  con- 
21* 


490  CAItS   JULIUS    CAESAR. 

quered,  and  this  done  returned  into  Italy  and  Illyria.  Thus 
ended  his  second  Gallic  campaign.  The  carnage  of  this 
year  amounted  to  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
Belgians,  sixty  thousand  Nervii,  and  four  thousand  Aduatuci, 
put  to  the  sword,  and  of  the  last  unhappy  people,  fifty-three 
thousand  sold  into  perpetual  slavery.  For  this  good  service 
the  senate  voted  to  Caesar  a  thanksgiving  to  the  immortal 
gods  for  fifteen  *  consecutive  days,  an  honor  granted  to  no 
one  previously. 

During  this  winter,  Cicero  was  recalled  from  banishment, 
and  joined  the  Pompeian  party  ;  Pompey  was  appointed  to 
proconsular  power  over  all  the  provinces,  to  superintend  the 
supply  of  corn  to  Kome,  with  the  power  to  appoint  fifteen 
lieutenants  ;  Clodius,  the  great  disturber  of  public  order 
was,  for  the  time,  reduced  to  quiet,  if  not  to  peace  ;  but 
what  is  far  more  important  to  the  fate  of  Rome,  Crassus 
and  Pompey  visited  Caesar  in  his  quarters  at  Lucca,  and  it 
was  agreed  among  them  that  Crassus  should  have  Syria,  and 
Pompey  Spain,  as  his  province,  each  with  a  large  army, 
Caesar  to  retain  his  own  for  five  years  longer,  with  his  pre- 
sent complement  of  eight  legions,  with  their  contingents  of 
auxiliaries  and  irregulars — to  such  a  vast  amount  had  the 
original  grant  of  the  people  of  three  legions  swelled. 

The  second  campaign  of  Gaul,  B.  C.  56,  had  ended  with 
the  despatch  of  Galba  with  a  legion  into  the  higher  Alps 
from  the  lake  of  Geneva  and  the  Rhone  to  the  tipper  passes, 
for  the  purpose  of  opening  and  securing  the  mercantile  roads 
from  Italy,  by  Switzerland,  into  France  ;  and  he,  after 
building  forts  and  clearing  the  defiles,  wintered  on  the 
ground.  The  third  campaign  opened  by  the  rising  of  all  the 
mountain  tribes  at  once,  with  the  intent  to  cut  off  the  Ro- 
man detachment,  but  they  were  defeated  with  tremendous 
*  Caesar  de  BeUo.  Gall.  III.  35. 


THIRD    CAMPAIGN.  491 

losses,  and  the  roads  were  permanently  opened,  and  kept 
open  by  garrisoned  posts. 

In  the  meantime  all  the  seacoast  nations  rose  in  arms 
again,  to  shake  off  the  Roman  yoke,  half  imposed  during 
the  past  campaign,  and  especially  the  hardy  and  half  mari- 
time inhabitants  of  the  coasts  of  Britanny  and  Morbihan. 
At  the  same  moment  tidings  arrived  that  the  Belgians  were 
again  stirring,  and  that  large  German  reinforcements  were 
moving  down  toward  the  Rhine.  Publius  Crassus  was  de- 
tached with  twelve  cohorts  and  a  strong  force  of  cavalry  to 
pass  the  Loire  into  Aquitaine,  and  hold  the  nations  of  the 
south  in  check,  so  that  they  should  render  no  aid  to  the 
'Britons  ;  Titus  Labienus  was  sent  with  the  cavalry  to 
Treves,  to  keep  the  Belgae  quiet  and  protect  the  Rhine  fron- 
tier ;  Titurius  Sabinus,  with  three  legions,  entered  Nor- 
mandy to  intimidate  the  inhabitants,  from  Cap  la  Hogue  and 
Cherbourg  to  Lizieux  at  the  mouth  of  the  Seine  ;  Decimus 
Brutus  went  south  to  Poitou  and  Saintonge  to  collect  all 
the  vessels  he  could  find  along  the  shores  from  the  Garonne 
to  the  Loire,  and  bring  them  up  to  Morbihan,  whither  Caesar 
proceeded  in  person,  with  all  his  infantry. 

Everywhere  the  operations  were  perfectly  successful, 
though  not  without  severe  and  well-sustained  resistance  in 
the  west  and  south.  Sabinus  was  so  strong  in  Normandy 
that  little  effective  opposition  was  made  to  him  ;  Labienus 
also  had  sufficient  force  to  overcome  the  Belgae,  and  no  at- 
tempt was  made  on  the  Rhine.  At  Yannes  several  sharp 
actions  on  land  occurred,  and  no  permanent  effect  was  pro- 
duced until  ships  were  collected,  when  a  fierce  naval  combat 
was  fought,  the  people  of  Morbihan  totally  defeated,  and 
the  whole  of  that  district  and  coasts  permanently  subdued. 
Crassus  swept  the  whole  country,  from  the  Loire  to  the 
Garonne,  and  crossing  that  river  to  the  Pyrenees,  where  ho 


492  CAIUS   JULIUS    CiESAR. 

stormed  several  cities,  fought  a  hard  battle  with  the  natives, 
aided  by  the  Spaniards,  veterans  of  Sertorius'  old  armies, 
and,  gaining  a  decisive  victory,  opened  a  communication  be- 
tween the  Roman  province  of  Narbonensis  in  the  south  and 
Csesar^s  new  conquests  in  the  north  and  west  ;  an  attempt, 
not  wholly  successful  on  the  Morini  and  Menapii,  from  Calais 
to  the  mouths  of  the  Scheldt  aud  Rhine,  v/hose  forests  pro- 
tected them,  closed  the  campaign.  The  army  went  into 
winter-quarters  in  Normandy  and  Bretagne  from  Lisieux  to 
the  Loire. 

In  the  next  year,  B.  C.  55,  the  XJsipetes  and  Tenchtheri, 
two  powerful  migratory  German  tribes,  crossed  the  Rhine 
near  its  mouth,  into  the  country  of  the  Suevi,  utter  barba- 
rians, ignorant  of  agriculture,  living  on  the  milk  and  flesh  of 
their  herds,  which  they  drove  with  them,  touching  no  wine 
nor  cooked  food,  wearing  no  garb  but  skins,  breaking  the 
ice  in  mid  winter  to  bathe  in  the  rivers  ;  large-boned,  wea- 
ther-proof, strong,  ferocious  barbarians. 

These  men,  the  rude  children  of  nature,  were  unable  to 
compete  in  villainy,  in  treason,  with  the  polished,  subtle, 
smooth  and  villainous  Italians.  Caesar  treated  with  them, 
proclaimed  an  armistice,  attacked  them  unawares,  butchered 
them  unresisting,  chased  them,  slaughtering  all  the  way,  to 
the  confluence  of  the  Rhine  and  Meuse,  into  which  they 
were  driven,  so  that  all  who  escaped  the  sword  perished  in 
the  waters. 

No  one  of  the  Romans  was  killed,  and  very  few  were 
wounded.  Of  the  enemy,  who  numbered  four  hundred  and 
thirty  thousand,  none  escaped.  Some  five  thousand  horse 
only,  of  this  ill-fated  horde,  who  had  been  foraging  beyond 
the  Meuse  at  the  time  of  the  butchery,  escaped  across  the 
Rhine,  into  the  country  of  the  Sicambri,  below  Cologne  ; 
and  Caesar  sent  a  deputation  to  this  powerful  tribe,  demand- 


FOURTH    CAMPAIGN.  493 

iug  their  immediate  extradition.  This  demand,  being  as  he 
expected,  peremptorily  refused,  he  immediately  applied  him- 
self to  bridge  the  Rhine,  a  feat  which  he  accomplished,  from 
the  felling  the  first  timber  to  the  transportation,  to  the  Ger- 
man soil,  of  the  last  baggage  wagon,  in  the  extraordinarily 
short  period  of  ten  days.  The  expedition  had  no  effect, 
whatever,  unless  to  intimidate  the  barbarians  at  the  wonder- 
ful power  and  audacity  of  Romans,  and  to  furnish  subject 
for  the  self-gratulation  of  the  mob  of  the  capital.  Having 
marched  across  the  bridge  and  up  the  Rhine,  he  marched 
down  and  back  again,  and  after  burning  a  few  wretched  vil- 
lages and  wasting  the  half-cultivated  fields  of  the  Ubii, 
returned  into  Gaul  and  broke  down  the  bridge,  having 
gained  nothing  for  himself  or  for  his  country,  except  the 
empty  renown  of  being  the  first  Roman  who  had  set  foot 
on  German  soil  with  an  army.  Late  as  it  was  in  the  season, 
he  was  yet  eager  for  more  display — for  it  can  be  called  no- 
thing else — and  collecting  ships,  passed  over  the  channel, 
landed  on  the  coast  of  Britain,  gained  some  advantages  in 
skirmishes  over  the  barbarians,  whom  he  drove  into  the 
forests,  and  then,  to  conclude,  after  nearly  losing  his  whole 
fleet  on  the  rocky  coasts  between  Beachy  head  and  Dover, 
during  the  neap  tides  of  the  equinox,  returned  as  he  went, 
but  for  the  same  empty  honor  of  being  the  first  civilized 
man  who  had  invaded  the  sacred  isle  of  Britain  in  the  un- 
known sea. 

The  reward  of  this  fourth  campaign  was  a  thanksgiving 
to  the  gods  of  twenty  days,  and  the  adulatory  exclamation 
of  the  weak  and  subservient  Cicero,  ''  When  compared  with 
the  exploits  of  Caesar,  what  has  Marius  done  ?"  The  honest 
Cato  spoke  of  the  dishonor  brought  upon  the  Roman  name 
by  the  base  treachery  and  broken  armistice,  in  the  case  of 
the  Germans,  as  it  became  a  Cato  to  speak,  and  moved  the 


494  CAIUS   JULIUS    C^SAR. 

senate  that  Caesar  should  be  delivered  up  to  the  Germans, 
as  a  traitorous  offender  against  the  law  of  nations.  But  if 
Cato  were  honest,  Rome  was  so  no  longer  ;  and  his  motion 
had  no  more  effect  than  Caesar's  Britannic  conquest. 

In  the  next  year,  the  700th  of  Rome,  B.  C.  54,  Pompey, 
while  maintaining  a  vast  army  in  Spain  under  his  lieu- 
tenants, resided  in  princely  pomp  in  his  villas,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Rome,  actually  governing  the  city  by  intrigue 
and  through  the  medium  of  his  friends  ;  Crassus  repaired  to 
his  Syrian  province,  pillaged  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  and 
invaded  the  country  of  the  Parthians  ;  Caesar  again  crossed 
the  channel  with  six  hundred  transports  and  twenty-eight 
ships  of  war,  landed,  probably  near  the  mouth  of  the  Stour; 
fought  several  actions,  in  all  of  which  he  defeated  the  enemy ; 
advanced  as  far  as  the  Thames,  which  he  forded  somewhat 
between  Kingston  and  Brentford ;  chased  Casivellaunus, 
the  king,  from  forest-hold  to  forest-hold,  seizing  his  flocks 
and  herds,  which  were  the  only  riches  of  the  land,  and, 
after  being  compelled  to  defend  his  own  ships  and  the  re- 
trenchments which  covered  them  as  they  lay  drawn  upon  on 
the  sand,  returned  into  Gaul,  receiving  a  nominal  submis- 
sion and  imposing  a  nominal  tribute  on  the  tribes  south  of 
the  Thames. 

Such  was  his  far-famed  conquest  of  Britannia.  During 
his  absence  his  daughter  Julia,  the  wife  of  Pompey,  died  ; 
and  the  first  connecting  tie  was  rent  between  the  two  real 
enemies  and  rivals,  who  had  been  kept  together  only,  in  spite 
of  clashing  ambitions,  jarring  interests,  deadly  jealousies,  by 
the  thinnest  web  of  policy,  to  scatter  which  to  the  four 
winds  of  heaven,  both  waited  but  the  best  occasion.  Crassus 
yet  lived,  and  preserved  the  balance  ;  but  not  for  long  ;  he 
gone,  the  last  link  was  broken. 

During  this  winter,   contrary  to  his  usage,  he  was  com- 


WINTER    QUARTERS.  495 

pelied  to  remain  in  Gaul,  for  on  his  return  from  his  vain- 
glorious expedition  to  Britain,  he  found  that  the  country- 
was  utterly  exhausted  and  unable  to  support  the  array,  united 
in  a  single  body.  He  was  obliged,  therefore,  to  separate  his 
force,  and  disperse  his  posts  through  the  country,  uncon- 
nected and  unsupported,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine  to 
the  vicinity  of  Treves,  through  a  country  of  impenetrable 
forests  and  impassable  morasses.  Labienus  with  one  divi- 
sion was  detached  to  the  Moselle,  near  its  junction  with  the 
R-hine  ;  Sabinus  was  quartered  on  the  Meuse,  near  Liege; 
Quintus  Cicero  on  the  Sambre  in  Hainault  ;  Caesar  himself 
was  in  force  at  Samarobriva,  now  Amiens. 

This  disposition  inspired  Ambiorix,  a  Belgic  chief  of  the 
tribes  inhabiting  the  country  about  the  confluence  of  the 
Seine  and  Meuse,  with  the  idea  of  attacking  and  cutting  off 
all  the  Roman  posts  in  a  single  day,  without  allowing  them 
an  opportunity  of  communicating  with  one  another.  The 
scheme  was  executed  with  singular  ability ;  Sabinus  in  an 
attempt  to  effect  a  junction  with  Cicero  was  cut  off  with  a 
whole  legion  and  five  cohorts  ;  Cicero  and  Labienus  were  at- 
tacked, blockaded  and  surrounded  by  lines  of  circumvalla- 
tion,  by  not  less  than  sixty  thousand  men  each.  Tidings 
were  conveyed  to  Caesar  with  much  difficulty,  and  with  his 
usual  celerity,  taking  with  him  but  a  single  legion,  he 
marched  day  and  night,  raised  the  sieges,  fell  on  the  enemy 
like  a  thunderbolt,  liberated  his  divisions,  and  won  a  com- 
plete victory. 

The  following  season,  his  sixth  campaign,  he  devoted 
solely  to  the  task  of  punishing  these  revolters  by  devastation 
of  their  country,  and  utter  destruction  of  their  tribes.  He 
again  bridged  and  crossed  the  Rhine,  brought  the  Ubii  and 
other  German  clans  to  give  hostages,  and  forced  them  to 
assist  him  with  auxiliaries  in  the  work  of  blood,  which  he 


496  CAIUS   JULIUS    C^SAR. 

meditated.  Then  he  turned  on  his  steps,  parted  his  army 
into  three  divisions,  invited  all  the  neighboring  nations  to 
join  in  the  slaughter  and  the  spoil,  and  beat  the  whole 
country,  as  if  with  a  band  of  hunters  in  pursuit  of  game, 
putting  all  whom  he  encountered  to  the  sword.  In  seven 
days  the  three  divisions  united  at  a  pre-appointed  rendezvous, 
and  their  work  was  done.  The  country  was  a  desert  in 
which  men  could  not  subsist ;  the  miserable  fugitives,  who 
escaped  the  butchery,  took  refuge  in  the  morasses,  or  hid 
themselves  among  the  neighboring  tribes.  In  Belgic  Gaul 
the  war  was  ended.  He  had  made  a  solitude  and  called  it 
peace.     So  much  for  the  clemency  of  Caesar. 

On  the  conclusion  of  this  campaign,  Caesar  returned  into 
Italy,  where  had  arrived  the  tidings  of  the  defeat  and  death 
of  Crassus,  and  there  was  much  to  be  done  politically  to 
secure  his  own  continuance  in  power.  During  this  winter 
popular  tumults  rose  to  such  a  height,  that  it  was  judged 
necessary  to  appoint  Pompey  sole  Consul  in  order  to  restore 
tranquillity,  and  it  must  be  admitted,  that  this  singular  man, 
who  was  ever  intriguing  for  illegitimate  and  extraordinary 
powers,  yet  never  using  them  when  gained  except  for  pur- 
poses of  vanity  and  show,  did  not  exceed  his  authority  or 
abuse  the  trust  reposed  in  him.  Clodius  had  been  slain  on 
the  high  road  by  Milo,  and  Pompey  was  affecting  the  state, 
and  using  more  than  the  arrogance,  of  a  king,  while  acting 
with  the  Senate,  observing  the  forms  of  the  government  and 
ruling  in  accordance  with  the  laws. 

During  this  winter  also,  as  a  counterpoise  to  Pompey 's  sole 
consulship,  Caesar  was  allowed  the  right  of  sueing  for  the 
consulship  in  his  absence,  as  his  command  was  soon  to  expire, 
and  so  long  as  he  retained  his  imperium  as  a  general  he 
could  not  enter  the  walls.  Contented  with  this  permission, 
he  left  Pompey  in  the  temporary  possession  of  the  state, 


SEVENTH    CAMPAIGN.  491 

confident  in  his  own  power  and  resource  to  overturn  him, 
when  he  chose,  from  his  vainly-usurped  and  weakly-used 
dominion. 

But  he  was  now  called  back  to  his  province  by  the  great- 
est danger  that  had  yet  threatened  Gaul.  Irritated  beyond 
measure  by  his  barbarities  in  the  last  campaign,  the  whole 
of  Gaul  rose  as  a  single  man,  and  determined  to  extirpate 
the  Roman  race  by  a  war  of  extermination,  a  war  to  the 
knife.  In  the  city  of  Genabum,  now  Orleans,  all  the  Roman 
residents  were  massacred  in  a  single  night,  and  the  tidings 
conveyed  by  the  human  voice,  man  shouting  to  man,  across 
field  and  flood,  fell  and  forest,  so  that  they  were  known 
everywhere  through  the  country  over  a  tract  the  diameter  of 
which  is  three  hundred  and  twenty  miles,  before  sunrise. 
All  Auvergne  sprang  to  arms,  and  the  Narbonense,  the 
Roman  province  itself,  was  seriously  endangered.  But 
Caesar  was  equal  to  the  crisis.  He  was  in  the  province 
almost  before  it  was  known  to  be  threatened  ;  he  rallied 
whatever  forces  lay  in  those  districts,  secured  all  the  towns, 
garrisoned  all  the  forts,  put  the  province  in  a  perfect  state 
of  defence,  and  then  launching  his  cavalry  into  Auvergne  to 
burn,  waste  and  destroy,  and  so  create  a  powerful  diversion, 
he  crossed  the  Cevennes,  then  six  feet  deep  in  snow,  reached 
Yienne  on  the  Rhone,  where  he  procured  an  escort  of 
cavalry,  and  reassembled  his  legions  which  had  wintered  on 
the  Seine,  before  the  enemy  knew  that  he  had  left  Auvergne. 

Then  rushing  impetuously  without  a  check  through  the 
country,  he  entered  Genabum  and  put  every  living  thing  to 
the  sword,  the  Gauls  retiring  before  him,  wasting  the  coun- 
try and  burning  their  own  towns  and  villages,  all  but  Ava- 
ricum,  the  present  town  of  Bourges,  which  being  very  strong, 
they  spared  contrary  to  the  opinion  of  their  leader.  This 
place  he  besieged  in  form,  and,  after  a  desperate  resistance 


498  CAIUS   JULIUS    CiESAR. 

from  within  and  the  most  resolute  efforts  to  relieve  it  from 
without,  carried  it  by  escalade  in  a  night  of  darkness  and 
tempest.  Of  forty  thousand  persons,  who  composed  its  pop- 
ulation, eight  hundred  escaped  alive.  After  this  followed 
some  intricate  manoeuvring,  marching  and  countermarching 
between  the  AlUer  and  the  Loire,  in  which  the  Romans 
gained,  to  say  the  least,  no  advantage.  The  siege  of  Gergo- 
via  failed — this  place  is  supposed  to  be  in  the  vicinity  of 
Clermont  of  Puy  de  Dome  in  Auvergne — and  Caesar  actually 
doubted  whether  he  should  not  abandon  Labienus,  who  was 
besieging  Lutetia,  which  is  now  no  less  a  place  than  Paris,  to 
his  fate,  and  retreat  into  the  province.  Happily  for  his  fame 
he  succeeded  in  forcing  a  ford  on  the  Allier,  hurried  toward 
the  Seine,  effected  his  junction  with  Labienus  near  Meluu, 
and  having  obtained  reinforcements  of  German  horse,  was 
once  more  in  condition  to  meet  the  Yercingetorix,*  which  is 
clearly  a  title,  not  a  name,  in  the  field. 

In  a  smart  cavalry  action  the  German  horse  of  Caesar 
turned  the  day,  and  the  Yercingetorix  dismissing  his  cavalry, 
took  post  at  Alesia,  a  strong  town  at  the  confluence  of  the 
Seine  and  Marne  with  eighty  thousand  men  and  thirty  days^ 
provisions,  trusting  to  be  relieved  by  a  Gaulish  levy  en  masse, 
if  Caesar  should  dare  to  besiege  him. 

That  Caesar  did  ;  and,  in  an  incredibly  short  time,  sur- 
rounded the  city  with  an  inner  line  of  circumvallation,  and 
his  own  camp  and  intrenchments  with  an  outer  line  of  coun- 
ter vallation,  embracing  continuous  ramparts  of  more  than 
fourteen  miles'  circumference,  field-works,  redoubts,  fosses, 
inundations,  with  outer  palisades,  abattis,  and  pitfalls,  with 
crowsfeet  to  receive  cavalry,  which  rendered  his  own  camp 
perfectly  secure,  and  the  position  of  the  enemy  desperate. 

*  Ver-cinn-cedo-righ.  Great  captain  generalissimo.  Thierry,  Hist. 
Gaal,  in.  97. 


SIEGE    OF   ALESIA.  499 

The  fighting  was  tremendous  ;  the  besieged  were  pressed 
by  famine,  and  in  order  to  make  their  provisions  last  as  long 
as  possible,  drove  out  all  the  non-combatants,  old  men, 
youths,  women,  infants  at  the  breast,  and  as  Caesar  would 
not  allow  them  to  pass  the  lines,  they  all  perished,  in  sight 
on  the  one  hand  of  their  friends  and  countrymen,  on  the 
other  of  their  merciless  invaders. 

In  the  meantime  an  immense  force,  said  to  have  amounted 
to  two  hundred  and  forty  thousand  foot  and  eight  thousand 
horse,  was  collected  to  raise  the  siege.  From  within  and 
without,  the  lines  were  assailed  with  equal  fury  and  determi- 
nation. Once  the  exterior  lines  were  forced,  when  Caesar 
sallied,  took  the  storming  party  in  the  rear,  threw  his  whole 
force  into  the  plain,  making  the  action  general,  and  bringing 
it  to  the  sword  and  buckler  work,  in  which,  over  barbarians, 
the  legionaries  never  failed  to  conquer. 

The  relieving  army  fled  and  was  pursued,  as  usual,  to  ex- 
tremity by  the  victorious  horse,  until  dispersing  they  saved 
themselves  in  the  woods  and  marshes,  which  were  now  their 
only  refuge.  Deprived  of  their  last  hope  of  relief,  the 
people  of  Alesia  now  surrendered  at  discretion,  their  Yer- 
cingetorix  giving  himself  up  first,  if  thereby  he  might  miti- 
gate the  doom  of  his  own  people.  Of  his  fate  no  record 
survives  ;  but,  to  the  reader  of  Roman  history,  it  is  in  no 
wise  doubtful — long  captivity,  the  procession  at  the  chariot 
wheel,  the  Tullianum,  and  the  lictor's  scourge  and  axe.  The 
people  were  sold  into  slavery.  So  fell  Alesia,  and  so  closed 
the  seventh  and  most  critical  of  the  GTaulish  campaigns. 
The  legions  went  into  quarters,  partitioning  the  whole  coun- 
try as  if  already  conquered,  on  the  Meuse,  the  Marne,  the 
Seine,  the  Saone,  the  Garonne,  garrisoning  all  France  with- 
out the  Roman  province  with  an  impregnable  line  of  military 
cordons.     From  this  day  the  war  was  in  truth  ended,  though 


600  CAIUS    JULIUS    C^SAR. 

it  suited  the  general,  for  the  gratification  of  his  troops,  for 
the  entire  annihilation  of  all  national  spirit  in  Gaul,  and  to 
gain  time,  to  protract  it  through  one  more  campaign  of 
cruelty  and  wrong. 

During  the  winter,  which  followed  this  campaign,  Caesar 
remained  tranquilly  in  Gaul,  affecting  to  take  no  heed  of 
events  which  were  passing  in  Rome,  while  in  reality  by  his 
agents,  one  of  whom  was  the  consul  Sulpicius,  with  the 
assistance  of  three  or  four  tribunes  of  the  people,  he  con- 
trived that  everything  should  so  far  be  regulated  according 
to  his  pleasure,  that  no  decree  of  the  Senate  should  stand,  to 
his  detriment. 

His  principal  object  would  now  seem  to  have  been  the 
gratifying  and  gaining  to  his  own  personal  uses  the  flower 
of  the  legions,  and  to  pacifying  his  province  by  any  means. 
For  the  first  purpose,  therefore,  and  also,  it  may  be,  to  prove 
to  the  adverse  party  in  Rome  tha^t  the  war  was  not  ended, 
so  that  his  presence  or  command  in  the  province  could  be 
dispensed  with,  he  called  out  two  legions,  the  eleventh  and 
twelfth,  and  employed  them  in  devastating  the  country  of 
the  Bituriges,  south  of  the  Loire,  whose  capital  was  the  un- 
fortunate city  of  Avaricum,  so  mercilessly  dealt  withal  in  the 
late  campaign,  on  the  pretext  that  they  were  again  moving. 

For  this  service,  as  it  was  irregular,  being  performed  in 
the  dead  of  winter,  and  produced  no  booty,  he  himself  gave 
a  private  bounty  of  two  hundred  sesterces  to  each  of  the 
privates,  and  ten  times  that  sum  to  every  centurion.  No 
sooner  had  these  troops  returned  to  their  quarters  than  he 
in  turn  called  out  two  other  legions  and  employed  them  on 
similar  duty,  with  a  like  reward,  in  the  country  of  the 
Carnutes,  about  the  ruins  of  the  wretched  Genabum. 

In  the  spring  of  the  year  103  of  Rome,  and  51  B.  C, 
these  severities  again  had  the  desired  effect.     The  people 


EIGHTH    CAMPAIGN.  601 

-called  Bellovaci,  in  the  Beauvoisis,  judging  from  the  fate  of 
their  neighbors  on  the  Loire,  despaired  of  safety  from  friend- 
ship or  fidelity  to  Rome,  and  took  up  arms  for  their  own 
security.  But  arms  were  no  stronger  defence  to  them,  than 
innocence.  Caesar  marched  with  the  eighth,  ninth,  and 
eleventh  legions,  the  latter  out  of  its  turn  of  duty,  because 
it  was  supposed,  although  now  in  its  eighth  year's  service,  to 
be  inferior  in  discipline,  and  partly  by  skillful  operations, 
partly  by  a  successful  and  destructive  action,  compelled  them 
to  surrender  at  discretion. 

This  done  and  the  Belgic  nations  once  more  subjugated, 
he  detached  Fabius  with  twenty-five  cohorts  to  operate  on 
the  left  of  the  Loire,  sent  the  twelfth  legion  toward  the 
sources  of  the  Garonne  in  order  to  cover  the  province  from 
the  consequences  of  any  risings  which  might  arise  from  his 
intended  cruelties  in  the  north,  and  then  with  Marc  Antony 
and  Labienus,  returned  toward  the  Scheldt  and  Meuse,  to 
renew  the  barbarous  executions  of  his  sixth  campaign. 

The  inhabitants  of  that  wretched  devastated  district  had 
gradually  crept  back  to  their  ancient  homes,  the  fields  were 
once  more  cultivated,  the  villages  again  becoming  populous. 
Ambiorix  had  resumed  his  government,  and  thinking  of 
nothing  less  than  war,  was  striving  to  heal  the  bleeding 
wounds  of  his  country.  But  it  was  necessary  to  prove  to 
all  Gaul  that  Rome,  or  Caesar,  never  forgave  one  who  strove 
against  her  for  freedom.  The  fields  were  again  wasted  with 
fire  and  sword,  and  military  execution  done  on  all  who  were 
found  in  the  country,  without  discrimination  of  age  or  sex, 
till  that  rich  district  of  the  low  countries  was  reduced  once 
more  into  a  howling  desert. 

Thence,  like  a  vulture,  lured  by  the  prescience  of  carnage, 
and  with  speed  equal  to  that  of  the  vulture's  wing,  he  swept 
back  with  terror  in  his  van  and  desolation  in  his  rear  to  the 


502  CAIUS   JULIUS    C^SAR. 

beautiful  plains  of  the  Loire  and  Garonne,  where  Fabius  his 
worthy  lieutenant  had  by  his  oppression  fanned  the  last 
spark  of  sedition  into  flame.  Drapes,  the  prince  of  that 
country,  had  raised  an  army  and,  when  defeated,  had  taken 
refuge  in  Uxellodunum,  a  strong  place  supposed  to  be  Cap 
du  Nac,  in  Quercy,  where  his  defence  was  so  resolute  as  to 
raise  the  hopes  of  the  neighboring  nations.  Hither  came 
Caesar,  and  hope  fled  with  mercy,  from  before  his  footsteps. 
His  masterly  and  rapid  operations  soon  reduced  the  last  fort- 
ress of  Gaul  to  a  surrender  at  discretion,  and  Caesar  wrote 
in  indelible  characters  his  title  to  the  name  of  clement,  by 
the  deed  which  followed  that  rendition  ;  he  struck  off  the 
right  arms  of  all  the  males  who  had  borne  arms  in  Uxellodu- 
num, for  the  intimidation  of  all  evil  doers  who  should  pre- 
sume thereafter  to  strike  for  liberty  or  country. 

Thus  terminated  the  war  in  Gaul.  Treason  in  Italy  was 
to  follow.  Caesar  had  now  gained  all  his  objects.  He  had 
a  large  rich  country  utterly  prostrate  at  his  feet,  capable,  so 
soon  as  its  wounds  should  be  a  little  healed,  of  furnishing 
him  ample  resources  either  to  conquer  or  to  purchase  Rome 
—he  had  an  army  of  twelve  legions,  beside  auxiliaries  of 
•every  arm,  probably  the  best  troops  the  world  had  ever  seen, 
thoroughly  devoted  to  his  will,  eschelloned  with  admirable 
skill  across  the  whole  of  France,  from  the  borders  of  his 
original  province,  not  far  from  Toulouse,  to  the  Scheldt  and 
Meuse  in  his  new  conquests.  He  now  wanted  only  a  pre- 
text, nor  was  he  long  in  finding  that. 

Another  year  passed,  and,  still  residing  in  the  low  coun- 
tries, he  had  assumed  for  a  time  the  reality  of  mercy  ;  he  con- 
ciliated the  temper  of  the  nations,  preserved  admirable  order 
and  tranquillity  in  his  province,  administered  justice  candidly, 
and,  instead  of  the  merciless  general,  showed  himself  the 
mild,  liberal,  impartial,  popular  magistrate. 


THE    NINTH   YEAR.  503 

Golden  opinions  he  won  from  the  provincials,  from  the 
army  ;  while  he  never  ceased  for  a  moment  to  collect  money, 
arms,  materials,  to  exercise  his  legions,  as  if  for  a  mighty 
war — truly  it  was  the  mighty  war,  for  which  all  the  past 
service,  all  the  past  toil,  all  the  past  bloodshed,  had  been 
but  boy's  play  of  practice  and  preparation — never  ceased  to 
agitate,  to  manage,  to  buy  Rome  by  his  agents,  of  whom 
Marc  Antony  was  the  ablest  and  most  unscrupulous,  by  his 
intrigues,  by  his  wealth,  which  was  now  as  overgrown  and 
enormous,  as  his  debts  had  been  formerly  extraordinary. 

Still  he  affected  to  preserve  the  utmost  veneration  for  the 
Senate,  and  to  hold  his  loyalty  and  obedience  to  its  orders 
unbroken.  When  he  was  called  upon  to  restore  two  legions, 
which  he  had  borrowed  from  Pompey  for  the  prosecution  of 
the  war,  he  restored  them  almost  before  the  mandate  was 
received — two  which  he  knew  thoroughly  devoted  to  him- 
self, and  from  which  he  could  expect  better  service,  when 
amalgamated  with  the  troops  on  whom  Pompey  could 
depend,  than  when  mustered  with  his  forces.  He  even  pro- 
posed to  resign  his  command  if  his  rival  would  do  so  likewise. 
Of  that  he  knew  there  was  no  danger. 

It  was  now  the  winter  of  the  year  of  Rome  104,  50  B.  C, 
and  the  ninth  that  he  had  been  engaged  in  active  hostilities. 
This  winter  he  resolved  to  spend  in  Italy,  but  with  his  usual 
caution,  he  left  all  his  army,  except  the  veteran  thirteenth 
legion  which  he  had  stationed  at  Placentia,  cantoned  in 
France,  four  legions  on  the  Scheldt  and  Meuse,  four  at 
Autun  between  the  Saone  and  Loire. 

His  reception  in  Cisalpine  Gaul  was  a  triumph,  aiid  his 
approach,  even  without  an  army,  struck  terror  to  the  Seaa se- 
rial party  and  was  regarded  almost  as  a  declaration  ol'  vvar. 
But  he  was  resolved  not  to  stir  without  a  pre  text  Cx  lli^^,  and 
tha,t  his  partizans  obtained  for  him.     In  the  opening  of  the 


504  CAIUS    JULIUS    C^SAR. 

year  ^05,  the  Consuls  Marcellus  and  Lentulus  moved  that 
prior  to  any  other  business,  the  matter  of  Caesar's  province 
and  command  should  be  considered,  and  on  the  seventh  of 
January  a  resolution  passed,  ordering  Caesar  to  dismiss  his 
army  and  retire  from  his  provinces  within  a  certain  day,  and, 
in  case  of  disobedience,  declaring  him  an  enemy  to  his 
country.* 

Antony  and  Cassius  interposed  their  veto,  and,  when  the 
Senate  invested  the  Consuls  with  dictatorial  power  by  the 
charge  "that  they  should  see  that  the  republic  took  no 
harm,"  affecting  to  believe  that  their  lives  were  in  danger, 
fled  to  the  camp  of  Caesar  for  protection.  The  Time  had 
come,  and  the  Man  was  ready.  Now  was  the  hour  for 
which  he  had  so  toiled,  so  steeped  his  soul  in  bloodshed. 
They  say  he  hesitated.  As  much  as  the  hungry  tiger  hesitates 
to  spring  on  its  defenceless  victim.  He  harangued  the  thir- 
teenth legion,  sent  orders  into  Gaul  to  the  twelfth  legion, 
which  was  already  under  marching  orders  to  join  him, 
advanced  upon  Ariminum,  crossed  the  Rubicon,  and  was  at 
war  with  Rome. 

Everywhere  the  people  fled  before  him,  everywhere  the 
soldiery  joined  him,  the  eighth  and  twelfth  legions  and 
twenty-two  cohorts  of  new  levies  overtook  him  from  Gaul  as 
he  pressed  forward  in  pursuit  of  Pompey,  who  found  that  the 
army  which,  he  had  boasted,  would  arise  from  the  soil  of 
Italy,  at  the  first  stamp  of  his  foot,  was  not  of  flesh  and 
blood,  nor  likely  to  withstand  the  half-barbarian  legions, 
inured  to  discipline  and  danger,  and  drunken  with  the  blood 
cf  Gaul,  who  rushed  like  a  torrent  at  the  heels  of  his  dread- 
ed ^"'val  over  the  prostrate  plains  of  Italy. 

Af>r  a  fruitless  stand  at  Brundusium,  until  Caesar  was 
thundering  at  its  gates  and  planting  his  ladders  against  the 
*  Ferguson  Rom.  Rep.  IV.  Y. 


IN   THE    CITY.  605 

walls,  Pompey  evacuated  the  country,  took  ship  with  such 
soldiers  as  adhered  to  him,  and  half  the  aristocracy  of  Rome, 
and  fled  to  Dyrrachium  in  Epirus,  whence  to  renew  the  war, 
and  meet  his  destiny,  and  that  of  the  Republic,  at  Pharsalia. 
In  sixty  days  he  had  cleared  Italy  of  every  enemy,  and 
every  soldier  who  had  been  raised  against  him  was  mustered 
under  his  eagles.  Entering  Rome,  he  assumed  the  control  as 
an  absolute  master,  though  he  affected  clemency,  made  no 
threat  of  violence  or  proscription  toward  the  friends  of 
Pompey,  and  even  performed  the  farce  of  deferring  to  the 
will  of  the  Senate.  The  value  of  this  deference,  however, 
was  soon  proved,  when  on  moving  the  Senate  to  appropriate 
the  moneys  in  the  public  treasury  to  the  prosecution  of  the 
war,  the  tribune  Metellus  Celer  opposed  him.  Then  the  spirit 
of  the  tyrant  spoke  in  the  voice  of  the  gladiator.  He 
threatened  the  honest  magistrate  with  immediate  death, 
adding  the  words,  **  this  is  easier  for  me  to  execute  than  to 
utter."  The  menace  was  enough,  the  doors  of  the  treasury 
were  forced,  the  moneys,  which  had  been  hoarded  there, 
since  the  destruction  of  Rome  by  the  Gauls,  in  readiness  for 
some  last  emergency  and  deadliest  need  of  the  republic,  un- 
touched during  all  the  dark  trials  of  the  Punic  war,  when 
Hannibal  was  threatening  annihilation  to  the  very  name  of 
Rome,  were  seized  by  the  usurper,  to  be  used  as  the  best 
weapon  against  the  last  stay  of  the  commonwealth. 

Almost  before  Pompey  was  in  Macedonia,  Caesar  was  in 
Gaul  besieging  Marseilles,  into  which  Domitius  Ahenobarbus 
had  thrown  himself  with  the  crews  of  a  squadron,  and 
raised  the  population  for  Pompey  and  the  Republic.  The 
siege  of  this  rich  and  strong  town,  by  sea  and  land,  Caesar 
committed  to  Trebonius  and  Decimus  Brutus  with  three 
legions  ;  and,  having  received  tidings,  which  proved  false 
that  Pompoy  was  in  Numidia  on  his  way  to  Spain,  where  he 
22 


606  CAIUS  JULIUS   CiESAR. 

had  a  regular  army  of  seven  Roman  legions,  five  thousand 
horse  and  eighty  cohorts  of  provincial  foot,  ordered  Fabius 
from  the  Garonne  through  the  Pyrenees  into  Spain  with  the 
four  legions  which  he  commanded,  and  himself  followed  him 
at  full  speed,  and  overtook  him  with  an  escort  of  nine  hun- 
dred horse  only  in  the  neighborhood  of  Lexida,  and  in  the 
face  of  an  overwhelming  superiority  of  the  enemy. 

The  campaign  which  followed  was  one  of  incessant  march- 
ing, manoeuvring,  intriguing,  and  but  little  fighting.  Gene- 
rally speaking  Caesar  was  out-generalled,  aud  in  some 
instances  out-fought,  but  the  superior  qualities  of  his  soldiers 
stood  him  in  stead,  and  his  own  marvellous  tact  and  mastery 
over  men's  minds  converted  all  his  losses  into  gains,  all  his 
disadvantages  into  absolute  success.  Petreius  and  Afranius 
narrowly  escaped  being  delivered  up  by  their  troops,  and  at 
last  their  whole  army  was  reduced  to  surrender  at  discretion 
without  striking  a  blow.  From  Spain  he  returned  victorious 
to  Marseilles,  which  had  resisted  gallantly,  till  it  heard  of 
Caesar's  return,  when  it  implored  mercy  and  surrendered  ;  that 
crafty  and  politic  man,  whose  game  now  was  mercy,  as  it 
had  been  in  Gaul  ruthless  execution,  receiving  its  submission 
without  an  expression  of  anger  or  resentment. 

While  in  Marseilles,  he  learned  that  he  had  been  dignified 
in  Rome  with  the  office  of  Dictator,  between  the  active 
energy  of  his  own  partizans  and  the  timidity  and  torpor  of 
the  opposite  faction,  and  hurried  at  once  to  the  city,  eager  to 
be  invested  with  a  legal  authority,  however  illegally  obtained, 
which  might  justify  his  unconstitutional  and  treasonable 
acts.  Stopping  a  short  time  at  Placentia  he  checked  a  dan- 
gerous mutiny  of  the  legions,  executed  the  ringleaders,  dis- 
missed the  ninth  legion  bodily  from  the  service,  proceeded  to 
the  city,  was  invested  with  the  authority,  and  decorated 
with  the  twenty-four  fasces  of  dictator.     This  high  trust  he 


TENTH   CAMPAIGN.  60 1 

instantly  violated  and  disgraced  by  creating  at  a  single  blow- 
all  the  inhabitants  of  Cisalpine  Gaul,  those  semi-barbarians, 
whose  least  rising  under  the  name  of  a  Gallic  tumult  had 
been  used  to  make  all  Rome  throw  off  the  toga  and  assume 
the  sagum,  free  citizens  of  the  Republic  ;  and  by  procuring 
an  indemnity  for  all  the  criminals,  Milo  the  slayer  of  Clodius 
alone  excepted,  who  lay  under  sentence  of  the  law,  or  who 
were  in  exile  for  political  offences,  at  the  commencement  of 
the  war.  This  closed  the  tenth  campaign,  and  eleventh  year 
of  command,  of  this  most  wonderful  man,  this  most  dishonest 
citizen  and  plausible  usurper. 

From  this  day  he  was — as  the  vision  is  said  to  have  proph- 
esied to  Cromwell — ^if  not  king,  the  first  man  in  Rome. 

From  this  period  of  his  life  to  the  end,  all  is  one  rapid 
rush  of  meteoric  splendor  and  success,  until  all  is  darkened 
for  ever,  but,  beyond  a  mere  summary  of  the  events,  little  is 
needed. 

It  will  not  do  to  say  that  a  man  who  won  every  battle 
that  he  fought,  displayed  no  generalship  ;  still  less  will  it  do 
to  say  that  the  victor  was  in  truth  beaten,  but  that  he  and 
his  army  could  not  find  it  out  and  therefore  beat  the  beaters. 
Yet  it  is  certain  that,  throughout  all  the  operations  about 
Dyrrachium,  through  Macedonia,  and  before  Pharsalia,  he 
was  completely  outgeneralled,  outmanoeuvred,  once  defeated, 
and  that  he  must  have  been  annihilated  but  for  the  undue 
caution  and  remissness  of  his  adversary.  His  victory  over 
Pharnaces  and  his  Alexandrian  tumults  were  mere  child's 
play,  scarcely  affairs  of  outposts,  and  unworthy  of  notice  in 
a  dispatch,  to  a  man  who  had  gone  through  the  gigantic 
combats  of  the  Helvetii,  the  Nervii  and  Alesia.  His  Fern, 
vidij  vici,  was  an  empty  boast,  intended  rather,  I  believe,  to 
represent  his  scorn  for  the  triumphs  of  Lucullus  and  Porapey, 
than  to  express  pride  at  his  own  exploits. 


508  CAIUS    JULIUS    CESAR. 

His  campaigns  in  Africa  and  Spain  present  nothing  what- 
soever to  increase  his  fame  as  a  strategist,  or  to  gain  him 
any  reputation  beyond  that  of  an  invincible  fighter..  Labie- 
nus  and  Petreius  surprised,  and  ought  to  have  defeated  him 
at  Kuspina  ;  Scipio  frustrated  all  his  endeavors  to  force  him 
to  give  battle  at  TJzita  and  obliged  him  to  raise  the  siege  ; 
at  Yaga,  Sarsura,  and  Tysdra  he  was  foiled  ;  at  Tegea  he 
was  worsted  in  an  affair  of  horse,  and,  if  he  won  at  Thapsus, 
it  was  by  the  impetuosity  of  his  irresistible  soldiers,  and 
neither  by  his  own  dispositions,  nor  by  his  own  orders. 

In  his  last  Spanish  campaign,  the  most  rapid,  dashing  and 
decisive  of  all,  the  fate  of  the  war  was  set  on  the  hazard  of 
a  die  in  the  single  action  of  Munda,  the  only  action  probably 
in  the  whole  war  in  which  his  troops  encountered  their  equals 
in  spirit,  in  discipline,  in  physical  force  and  moral  courage, 
and  this  battle  was  won  by  the  consequences  of  the  merest 
accident. 

A  JsTumidian  partizan  with  a  few  squadrons  of  irregular 
horse,  made  an  unmeaning  and  unauthorized  dash  at  the 
camp  of  the  Pompeians  ;  Labienus,  deceived  by  the  movement, 
wheeled  to  repel  the  attack,  and  the  whole  army,  which  had 
hitherto  fought  with  advantage  and  were  gaining  ground  on 
all  points,  instantly  broke  and  fled.  Such  a  victory  is  indeed 
the  fortune  of  war,  and  were  I  called  upon  to  name  a  gene- 
ral, who  was  especially  entitled  to  be  named  the  fortunate,  it 
would  not  be  Sylla,  but  Caesar. 

He  certainly  never  met  a  general  of  above  second  or  third 
rate  ability,  yet  he  was  constantly  foiled  and  outmanoeuvred 
in  the  field,  and  more  than  once  must  have  been  beaten  but 
for  the  gross  misconduct  of  his  enemies,  or  the  egregious 
excellence  of  his  own  soldiers.  Once  or  twice,  in  spite  of 
the  immense  superiority  arising  from  the  quality  of  his  com- 


C^SAR   AS    A   MAN.  609 

mand,  and  the  confidence  reposed  therein,  he  was  nearly 
destroyed  by  untrained  barbarians. 

As  a  manoeuvring  general,  or  captain  in  the  field,  I  cannot 
rate  him  very  high  ;  but  in  the  cabinet,  for  combining  his 
plans,  concerting  his  operations,  calculating  his  means,  dis- 
posing his  powers,  so  as  to  render  defeat  impossible  and 
victory  certain,  he  probably  never  had  an  equal,  certainly 
never  a  superior. 

As  a  creator  of  armies  again  he  stands  unrivalled  ;  and  he 
is  no  mean  master  of  the  art  of  war,  or  of  the  world's  wis- 
dom, who  can  make  of  men  machines,  with  which  he  can, 
beyond  a  peradventure,  calculate  on  conquering  a  world. 

In  a  word  he  must  be  held  a  great  general  who  never  lost 
a  battle  or  failed  in  a  campaign,  even  as  he  must  be  admitted 
a  great  man,  who  creates  his  own  occasions  out  of  which  to 
work  his  own  will — especially  when  that  will  outsoars  all 
scope  of  the  most  mounting  ambition,  all  reach  of  human 
calculation,  all  limit  of  what  may  be  called  human  possibility. 

Morally,  as  a  man,  no  one  could  be  worse  than  Caesar — 
he  had  no  hue  or  blush  of  principle,  honesty,  honor,  decency, 
consistency  or  humanity.  Interest  was  his  only  guide,  self 
his  only  God.  He  loved  nothing,  honored  nothing,  feared 
nothing,  and  he  died,  feared  indeed,  but  neither  loved  nor 
honored. 

Politically,  as  a  citizen,  no  one  that  was  ever  born  can 
compete  with  Caesar  for  deliberate,  cold-blooded,  calculated 
treason.  Thirty  years  before,  when  the  commonwealth  was 
tranquil,  at  peace  at  home  and  abroad,  perfectly  free,  mode- 
rately well  governed,  and  in  danger  of  no  present  convulsion, 
he  deliberately  resolved  to  subvert  the  Constitution,  cheat 
the  people,  destroy  the  Senate  and  make  himself  kmg.  By 
feigning  an  excessive  zeal  for  even  ultra  liberty  he  convulsed 
the  state,  sapped  the  foundations  of  law  and  order,  and  pre- 


510  CAIUS   JULIUS    C^SAR. 

pared  the  way  for  revolution.  By  immeasurable  hypocrisy 
he  undermined  and  ruined  every  friend  and  defender  of  the 
constitution.  By  incalculable  bloodshed  he  made  to  himself 
an  invincible  machine  for  defence  or  aggression,  and,  when 
the  moment  came,  turned  it  against  his  own  country  and  de- 
stroyed her. 

He  has  no  plea  of  party,  for  he  *had  no  party,  except 
whichever  he  chose  for  the  moment  to  make  his  tool.  No 
excuse  of  creed,  for  he  beheved  in  nothing,  aristocracy  or 
democracy,  senate  or  tribunes  of  the  people,  equally  rotten 
and  contemptible  to  his  cold  sarcastic  eye.  No  apology  of 
fanaticism,  for  he  was  not  a  fanatic — -no  not  even  of  glory. 

He  made  himself  absolute  hereditary  monarch,  if  he  did 
eschew  the  name  king — and  even  this  seems  doubtful — of  a 
free  Republic, — if,  as  I  take  it,  the  power  to  make  and  exe- 
cute the  law,  the  power  of  life,  the  possession  of  the  purse 
and  sword,  constitute  absolute  monarchy,  whether  the  man 
wear  a  wreath  of  laurel  or  a  diamond  crown,  whether  he 
wield  a  sceptre  or  a  sword,  whether  he  call  himself  dictator, 
king  or  president. 

Strange  to  say,  having  the  substantial  power,  having  even 
the  frippery  and  tinsel,  the  palmated  tunic  and  purple  toga, 
the  gilded  laurels  and  the  curule  chair,  he  coveted  the  empty 
title — craved  to  be  called  king. 

Therefore  he  perished,  not  that  he  was  the  actual  thing, 
but  that  he  coveted  the  unreal  name.  So  inconsistent  are 
men,  even  the  lovers  of  immortal  liberty. 

I  may  not  justify  nor  even  palliate  assassination,  but  I 
must  coincide  with  the  dictum  of  the  senate,  ''  Jure  Csesus 
habeatur  I"  Let  him  be  accounted  justly  slain  I  he  and  all 
they  who  do  likewise  ! 

With  Caius  Julius  Caesar,  ends  the  list  of  the  Captains  of 
the  Roman  Republic  ;  as  in  fact  with  him  ends  the  Repubhe. 


FALL    OF    THE    REPUBLIC.  611 

He  was  the  first  emperor  of  Rome,  and  the  founder  of 
her  first  dynasty.  If  a  few  months  of  doubtful  strife  followed 
his  fall,  if  a  few  spasmodic  efforts  at  liberty  convulsed  the 
corpse  of  the  expiring  republic,  they  were  the  effects  of 
departing,  not  of  returning,  life.  If  it  did  require  the  holy 
blood  shed  at  Philippi  to  consummate  the  sacrifice  of  free- 
dom, if  it  did  require  the  shameless  flight  of  the  wild 
Antony  at  Actium  to  consolidate  the  despotism  which 
endured  for  centuries  unchanged,  until  the  years  had  elapsed 
predicted  by  the  mythic  vultures  seen  from  the  Palatine  by 
Romulus  and  Remus,  and  Rome  sank  from  the  arbitress  of 
nations  and  the  mistress  of  the  world  to  be  the  slave  of  the 
barbarian,  and  the  handmaid  of  the  priest — still  with  the 
fall  of  Csesar  fell  the  Republic  of  Rome,  never  it  may  be 
feared  to  know  liberty  again,  until  the  end  of  all  recorded 
time. 


/A 


FOURTEEN  DAY  USE 

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